I don't understand food and starvation

[Nyx]

I am trying to learn how to play the game and have been struggling with starvation. I have been playing Castile and both my markets are always out of food and my armies are always starving. I have had a hard time finding information on how to manage these issues. I have been building food RGOs, irrigation and granaries but still have these persisting issues.

[Sad Lad]

Best recommendation I could give would be just save money early, hope you get a parliament that wants to expand hunting, farming, or gathering and then just SPAM R.G.O expansion on those food producing tiles. If you're importing any sort of food to any market it will show.

You could also dedicate a town in a market for housing food. Make it a granary town and then build food storage expansion there.

[Ango1eiro]

Make a trade order to import food. You will lose some money on trading, but your pops will stop dying. Saved my granada playthrough.

[teron]

While I have not played 1.4, I know in 1.3 there was a government reform called Agricultural Cultivation that gave a buff to food production and prosperity, though it pushed land social value.

You also want to make sure that you have given to the commoners the "Free Mobility for the Common People" privlage. Since that will allow labours to migrate within the market, where they will naturally migrate to locations that have open labour jobs.

[billspieth]

If you are building food rgos, I strongly suspect it is lack of granaries in your towns and cities. Whenever I have money and labor I check granaries and try to keep them at max.

[Húskarlar]

I genuinely don't understand the economy anymore after this last patch.

[Jens@Saxony]

location > province > market > world market

>A location produces food and stores it in its own food storage.

>Everything more (above 100%) goes to the province food storage, where every province location push and pull food. The good thing is, this should not cost any market trading capacity or money (I'm not 100% sure).

>If the province food is not full, the province trys to buy food from the market food storage, and when it is full, it sells food to the market food storage (this costs money, visible in balance panel, but this shouldn't cost trading capacity -> I am not 100% sure :-D)

>the market has instruments to trade food with other markets, trading costs money and trade capacity

The food production is strong reduced in winter time and I believe that it is strongest in autumn. So that should be the game mechanic, when I understood it correctly.

It is important to understand, that EU5 is leaning to historical issues. Until 1900 there never was food safety in europe. For example 1845 one million irish people died because of starvation. Occasionally there were famines/starvation. So it should be understandable, that 1337 is not a period, where food is accessible everytime in large quantities. This is not Siedler 4, where 4 fields need 2 wind mills need 1 bakery.

It is usual to have times of starvation in this game. You still can do some improvements to it. E.g. storing more food (beside there is also a food spoilage mechanic) using granaries. But playing Castille (Spain) also means to be a underdeveloped slum in 1337 and rich markets in italy could buy your food. To reduce that, you could do tarrifs with patch 1.4. To prevent one market to feed all soldiers, you could split them between markets (if you control more than one, or have vassals with their own markets). These are examples of many instruments you could take usage in this great game. :-)

So my main point is, that it is totally historical to have provinces with times of starvation which is reproduced by this game.

[Dregvant]

Originally posted by Jens@Saxony:

location > province > market > world market

>A location produces food and stores it in its own food storage.

>Everything more (above 100%) goes to the province food storage, where every province location push and pull food. The good thing is, this should not cost any market trading capacity or money (I'm not 100% sure).

>If the province food is not full, the province trys to buy food from the market food storage, and when it is full, it sells food to the market food storage (this costs money, visible in balance panel, but this shouldn't cost trading capacity -> I am not 100% sure :-D)

>the market has instruments to trade food with other markets, trading costs money and trade capacity

The food production is strong reduced in winter time and I believe that it is strongest in autumn. So that should be the game mechanic, when I understood it correctly.

It is important to understand, that EU5 is leaning to historical issues. Until 1900 there never was food safety in europe. For example 1845 one million irish people died because of starvation. Occasionally there were famines/starvation. So it should be understandable, that 1337 is not a period, where food is accessible everytime in large quantities. This is not Siedler 4, where 4 fields need 2 wind mills need 1 bakery.

It is usual to have times of starvation in this game. You still can do some improvements to it. E.g. storing more food (beside there is also a food spoilage mechanic) using granaries. But playing Castille (Spain) also means to be a underdeveloped slum in 1337 and rich markets in italy could buy your food. To reduce that, you could do tarrifs with patch 1.4. To prevent one market to feed all soldiers, you could split them between markets (if you control more than one, or have vassals with their own markets). These are examples of many instruments you could take usage in this great game. :-)

So my main point is, that it is totally historical to have provinces with times of starvation which is reproduced by this game.

Major Food Distribution Systems in the Middle Ages

The Annona Authorities (Italy and Communal Europe): Beginning in the 12th–13th centuries, many Italian city-states (such as Florence, Venice, Siena, and Bologna) established permanent offices known as the Uffici dell’Annona or del Biado. These agencies purchased grain in bulk during periods of abundance, stored it in large public granaries, and resold it at controlled prices during famines.

Price controls and market regulation: State and municipal authorities set maximum prices for bread and grains by law. To prevent merchants from hoarding grain for speculative purposes, governments imposed bans on exporting foodstuffs outside the territory (tratte) and required producers to deliver a portion of their harvest to public warehouses.

Public Granaries and the Imperial System in China: Outside of Europe, the Chinese Empire (under the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties) had the most advanced state-run system in the world, known as the “Constant-Level Granaries” (Changpingcang). The state purchased grain when prices were low and distributed it free of charge or at low cost to provinces affected by drought or flooding.

Religious and Feudal Assistance: In rural areas where central government authority was weak, the distribution network was managed by monasteries and feudal lords. Abbeys collected tithes in kind and distributed soup or bread to the poor during the harshest winters, serving as a local social safety net.

I’ve noticed that in Italy the Franciscan Order (with its religious influence) is available, which helps, but there are no measures in place to manage a problem deliberately created by Paradox

In the Middle Ages, laws against hoarders were extremely severe and punished the hoarding of food as a genuine crime against the community and the state.
In Italian communes and European kingdoms, anyone who bought large quantities of wheat to hide it away and resell it at inflated prices during famines was called a hoarder, a monopolist or a fraudulent speculator. Governments regarded food speculation not only as an economic offence, but also as a mortal sin of avarice condemned by the Church.

Prohibition on purchasing before the market opened: It was illegal to intercept farmers along the roads before they reached the town’s market square. Merchants were only permitted to purchase grain after a certain time of day, so as to give priority to townspeople buying for household use.
Obligation to declare stocks: During times of crisis, Annona officials carried out door-to-door censuses. Landowners and merchants were required to declare in writing every sack of grain held in their private storehouses.
Ban on exports (the Tratte): It was strictly forbidden to take grain, flour or livestock beyond the boundaries of the municipality or the kingdom without a special written permit. This prevented merchants from selling food in neighbouring provinces where prices were higher.
Maximum possession limit: The laws set the maximum quantity of grain that a family or shopkeeper could keep at home, calculated on the basis of the number of household members.
The punishment for offenders

- Immediate confiscation of goods: All hidden grain was seized by public officials and sold immediately in the market square at a controlled price.
- Hefty fines and financial ruin: As well as losing the goods, hoarders had to pay fines that often exceeded the value of the seized cargo itself.
- Corporal punishment and public pillorying: In the most serious cases or during extreme famines, the guilty parties were pilloried in the main square, flogged or branded with a hot iron.
- Banishment and the death penalty: Anyone attempting to smuggle grain out of the state during a famine risked perpetual exile with the confiscation of all their property or, in some cities such as Venice and Florence in the 14th century, even hanging.


Medieval theologians established that food must have a fair price based on the cost of production and not on the people’s hunger. Those who speculated on grain were excommunicated and excluded from the sacraments.
The bakers’ and millers’ guilds themselves kept a watchful eye on their own members, expelling anyone who tampered with the weight of bread or mixed wheat flour with sawdust, chalk or earth to increase profits.

Food was a serious matter in the Middle Ages

[Nyx]

Thank you everyone for your comments. I have had my best playthrough of EU5 so far since making this post. I play a lot of Victoria 3 so learning how to read this much more complicated UI has been a challenge for sure.