Victoria 3: Trade and Markets

Victoria 3 lets players lead their nation through social, political, and industrial change and the economic changes are based on the trade and marketplaces It is very important to learn the market prices and learn how to do the trading with others.

In this guide, we’ll tell you about the Market and Trading in Victoria 3.

Markets

Markets in Victoria 3 are great because when you run out of money on the real stock market, you can lose fake money by speculating in-game. Without market prices, economic decisions are beyond human capacity and this same concept remains true in Victoria 3. Every good has a market price determined by supply and demand. These prices are unique to each market which has its own supply and demand of goods.

By default, each country is in its own market but it is possible to create multinational markets by having subject states and by creating customs unions with free states. For example, the United Kingdom starts the game with a particularly large multi-continental market which is useful for reliably feeding its industry, such is the benefit of having colonies all over the world. You’re not limited to just multinational markets, it is possible to conduct unilateral trade with any qualifying nation.

Trading

Trading can be done via Trade Routes. A Trade Route can be used to import a good into your country or export goods to another country. This means that if your market isn’t making enough food, you can import the deficit from somewhere else. You can see what goods are you short on and by how much from the Trade Screen. Similarly, you can also use the screen to see what goods your market is overproducing and you can export them for a profit.

Trade Routes aren’t free and in order to maintain them, you’ll be needing Bureaucracy. If your nations don’t have land connections between each other, it’ll take up convoys too. Trade Routes are also subject to international diplomacy so don’t import your national food and weapon supply from a country that you’re about to go to war with, or one who hates, and may embargo you. Trade Routes can take some time to come online. Each trade route starts at level 1 which means it moves only a low volume of goods. The level and the volume of goods it transports will increase if the route is profitable, and decrease if it loses money.

Trade Centers are the development buildings that will be automatically created and destroyed in proportion to the needs of your trade network. Regardless of whether you’re importing or exporting goods, you’re very likely to profit off of trade routes via tariffs. Although tariffs are a tax on your pops, it’s not actually making you richer, it’s just moving some money around. But none of this even matters if your goods can’t make it to market.

Each state has a Market Access rating and by default, it’s 100% which means it’s functioning normally. However, each state has a limited amount of infrastructure, and buildings need that infrastructure to operate. If the total infrastructure usage exceeds the supply, the state’s economy will suffer penalties in proportion to how overused the infrastructure is. To increase Market Access in the Coastal States, you can build Ports but inland states will need Railroads. Once you have a functioning economy, you can start taxing it to make profits.