Should i give my colony to trade company or not ?

[5uperJ!mmY™]

In South Africa, Ivory Coast trade node.

[Ficelle]

Ivory Coast, yes.
You wont get much from the land anyway.
Its only value is dominating trade to direct it where you want.
And eventually, getting a free merchant.

It is also better for Cape.
Cape could be stated as there is some decent provinces, but...in the end, it is not really worth it (wrong culture and religion, trade companies dont care)
If it is to stay as territory, trade companies are better + merchant.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

In general there's very little reason to NOT make a trade company if you can.

Making it a state can easily cost too much for what you get and tied up the slots against far more valuable stuff.

The extra merchants are amazingly useful once your network grows. You get PILES of ships for protecting trade or privateering. You don't have to worry about religion or culture differences period, the trade company boosts goods produced in surrounding provinces based on it's percentage of the trade market which in turns means even more value.

Which is a lot better IMO than a tiny amount of force limit and tax you get other wise leaving it as a normal territory.

[5uperJ!mmY™]

how about those coastal territory that produce 4 gold ivory or Gold Mine ?

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Production income isn't affected by Trade Companies, just tax, force limit and manpower.

So you get the same amount as normal for a territory (albeit without having to deal with religous or cultural penalties or have to change those). And since the trade company will easily dominate the node you'll be able to get most of that trade value as well.

It's simply not worth the state slots is the main thing. Either you'll lose a bunch in state maintence due to distance from capital or it prevents you stating other overall more valuable territory that when you swap it, wastes MP.


Though the REAL value of Trade Companies is to hold as little territory as possible while gettting as close or more to 60-70% trade share, since provinces that belong to you aren't affected by the goods produced modifier.

(in the past I'd have protectorized a nearby nation and fed it all of the territory I didn't want to hold myself and then make it transfer trade power, so I got all the trade power AND full benefit of the goods produced in trade share).

unfortunately...without protectorates Trade Companies aren't as useful as they used to be but it's a minor gripe. Though you can still pull it off if you can get transfer trade-power from nearby nations, since that doesn't take a relation slot anymore.