You get this quote from time to time on the loading screen of E:TW, and it pretty much sums the philosophy of E:TW. The Total War series has always been about battles and building up empires. However, to recruit armies and maintain your empire you need money.
Each region has a capital, and every capital has a government building. You will notice in the description of the government building that each tier or level will give you a certain modifier for taxation. This value is a multiple of three: 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% and 15%. In most regions you can have a government building that offers you up to 9%, and only nations' capitals will be able to construct the last two tiers that offer 12% and 15%. Military government buildings can offer a maximum of 3% tax rate modifier.
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In the region's window, you get the total value of wealth of a region in the total income row, and as you can see, wealth is an actual amount that you benefit from through taxes. Wealth is the most important factor in your economy in Empire Total War after trade, and can be even more important if you don't have trade-centered economy. In mid-late game, Wealth can be contributing to over 50% of your regions' income and giving you a comfortable treasury to work with.
For example, in Paris, you have multiple ports from the get-go at year 1700. Having two tier-1 commercial ports in Paris will give you a total of 4 trade lanes. If you expand to the west and invade Amsterdam, you will notice that the number of trade routes available to you has not changed. The simple reason for this is that there is not direct land lane between Amsterdam and Paris. If you add Flanders to your possessions you will see that you get 3 extra sea trade lanes. That's because now you have a direct land route between Paris and Amsterdam, and the trade port in that region is a tier-2 port which offers 3 extra sea trade lanes.
However, if the region that produces resources for you doesn't have a commercial port or isn't adjacent to a region of yours that has a commercial port then all the resources produced will not get transported to Paris, and thus won't be used in global trade. So always make sure that you build commercial ports in your colonies.
Another aspect of importing resources to your capital that should be checked on is the capacity of your commercial ports. There are 4 tiers of commercial ports, and each tier will offer more capacity for transport. So if you have two or three regions producing resources and they share a single first tier commercial port, in most probability most of your resources are not being delivered to you capital. To check if a region's resources are being imported, open the region's panel and check the total income row. If a resource is not being transported entirely, its icon will be shadowed.
A very simple example that you can see as early as 1700 is Spain-controlled Cuba. Cuba is an extremely rich colony with many plantations, and since you start with a single first tier port, if you build up the plantations faster than your port, then you won't be benefiting from your resources. So always keep the number and level of commercial ports consistent with the number and level of your plantations.
Let's cover blockades first. Any hostile navy can blockade a port, which results in a total loss of transport of goods that you might have had coming in or out of that port. That means a total loss of trade resources if it is a colony, and total loss of global trade with trade partners if it is the port connected to your capital. Blockades must be dealt with immediately because you will be losing a lot of money that you cannot afford. In the trade panel, you'll see the whole trade lane in red with an "x" sign over the icon.
You cannot build plantations anywhere you wish, you can only build them on resource plots. Most resource plots will give you an option to build one of two resources. Make sure you diversify your resources so that you won't flood the market with a single commodity the price of which will drop.
Each tier of plantation will offer you greater amounts of the same resource which should increase your total trade income. But always keep an eye on commodity prices to make sure that no market oversaturation may occur. Another thing to keep an eye on is the commercial ports' capacity and that all of your resources are being transported to your capital as discussed earlier.
Industrial structures, schools, cultural buildings and port are all constructed in towns and ports that grow out of villages. Most regions have underdeveloped villages that grow according to the available farming and fishing facilities and technologies implemented. You have to encourage this growth in order to benefit from building structures you need to develop your nation economically and culturally. Taxation Policy for lower classes affects population and town growth negatively, so you have to keep balanced taxation policies to allow towns to grow.
When you select a town or a port, you notice that you get a status of wealth of the town: Very Poor, Poor, Growing, Prosperous and Wealthy. Income generating structures would give you higher income the higher the level of wealth of the town. So always try to build industrial buildings in wealthier towns, and keep schools and cultural buildings in the poorer towns.
In Empire, Industry takes an important role in increasing your regions' income. You have three types of industrial buildings: Metal Works, Weavers and Pottery. The last type of industrial structure is available in a very limited number of places (Palestine). In most towns, you will be given an option to build either a Metal Works or a Weaving factory.
Industrial buildings will give you a constant income that contributes to your taxable income in the region. This income depends on the type of industrial building, the level of the industrial building and more importantly on the town wealth, as the higher the wealth of the town, the higher the income will be. Keep an eye on lower classes unrest as advanced industrial buildings will increase their unhappiness.
Farming increases population growth and contribute to the taxable income of a region. Each level of farming facilities you construct will give a higher boost to population growth and will give higher income in your regions. One important effect of population growth is that it prompts villages' growth into towns and ports that you build into industrial, commercial and cultural centers.
Also keep an eye on your Ministers' traits and followers. Some traits will give you extra discounts on cost of construction costs of cultural buildings or farms, while others will actually increase the costs of building industrial buildings. Sometimes it might be more economically beneficial to get rid of a great minister with many stars because of a bad trait or two. The Head of your state, president or king/queen, can also have traits and followers that affect your economy.
The title of the game is Empire: TOTAL WAR. You need to build up your economy just so that you can muster huge armies and fleets and overwhelm your armies. Most of your income will be basically split into development and construction costs, recruitment costs, and Upkeep. Upkeep is a recurring cost that you have to pay each and every turn to your soldiers or they will desert you, and will be the biggest drain on your treasury for the duration of the game.
Research industrial techs as fast as possible and upgrade your industrial buildings and infrastructure to increase wealth generation. Using the money on universities and industry instead of navies would give you an equal income as a result of wealth.
A balance is always preferable, so if you can have both classes taxable at the same rate while having a positive wealth and population growths then by all means do that. However, in most cases, population growth is negative or null in the first few turns as the farming facilities are underdeveloped and you need some techs to increase their efficiency. To encourage population growth, you'll have to decrease the taxation levels for the lower classes so that towns would emerge and you can build structures required to develop your regions.
In most regions, you have the option of building a single structure in the capital. The two options you have are either Government building or a Military barracks. The Government building will offer you higher taxation bonus of 9% and higher repression of +3, which translate into more money and lower costs for town watch respectively. The Military barracks offers you a maximum of 3% bonus to tax income in the region and only +1 repression which makes the region's income less efficient and more difficult to maintain happiness.
That's why I prefer to have Government buildings in my capitals. Another advice is when you expand and you are planning to invade a minor nation, wait for them till they build up the "Imperial Palace" in their capital. This type of buildings is only possible in a nation's capital, and you cannot build it outside your own capital region, so they are limited in number. This structure offers 12% bonus to tax and +4 to repression, so if you wait a bit, you'll get an excellent tax farm.
Fishing Ports offers population growth and a fixed income to the region. On the other hand, Commercial port offers a fixed income, and it contributes to wealth generation. Since Commercial ports are the only type of ports that contribute to wealth generation, I always construct commercial ports, and I've never built a single fishing port in my campaigns. When I take over a region that was controlled by the AI, it usually has a fishing port. My first priority would be always to pull it down and build a commercial port instead.
When you start your campaign at 1700, you will notice that some of your non-income producing towns and ports have been built in prosperous and wealthy towns. This strategy will require that you actually destroy these buildings and build up factories in their stead. Build your cultural buildings later on in the very poor or poor towns, as town wealth doesn't affect their efficiency, while town wealth affects the efficiency of Industrial buildings and Commercial Ports. 2ff7e9595c
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