The goals of the Trade minigame are twofold:
- Get the most tradepower in your home tradenode
- Get the most tradepower in nodes that point to your trade node
The tradepower formula is fairly complex, but the important modifiers are: Local Provincial Tradepower, Mercantilism and Trade Efficiency. Any event that gives Mercantilism needs to be taken at all costs. It's amazing. Seriously. 1.00 Merchantilism can mean the difference of 3 duckets/month.
Merchants are the Envoy for trade. You start off with 2 and get one from Expansion Ideas, 2 from Trade Ideas, 1 from Merchant Republic, 1 for every major trade company, and 1 from Thalassocracy. Merchants can do two things: Collect from tradenode and transfer trade power.