Commercial VS Industry income?

[Songsong]

Which one give you the most money?

I usually goes with Market + Inn. I think it make the most money for me so far but want to hear more feedback..


In case ppl wondering i build the following
Government Support,
Land Development,
Admin Office,
Confucian temple.

[JuX]

Everything really depends on your territory resources and areas your planning on expanding for maximum profit.

In general id say commerce is most profitable considering it's buildings give considerable commerce buffs and trade influence. Not to mention city harbors which for someone like Sun Jian at least give +10% faction-wide commerce each.

I wouldn't listen to the other guy about trade agreements, since it can easily be managed. Some warlords maybe unreliable, but lesser factions are rather dependable long as they aren't vassals. Besides if trade partners are lacking you can simply convert your administrators in to vassals and do trade with them.

[dulany67]

It's situational. I almost always invest in agriculture and peasants to build food economy in the early game. If I have a trade port, I go commerce; if I have mines, I go industry.

[Geroiko]

There is no commerce vs industry discussion, these two go hand in hand and compliment each other so you don't choose one or the other unless you want to end up with sub-optimal commanderies and lesser gold income. The only debate is whether to go agriculture vs industry/commerce. That is a question not so simple to answer given that there are many different factors and variables affecting one choice or the other e.g. how many turns it takes you to complete campaign, which commnadery specifically are we talking about, what's the circumstances in your campaign etc etc. If the question is what would yield me the most income in hypothetical scenario, then hands down its the industry/commerce build but it requires much heftier investment and turns to build which means it will take slightly longer to yield a return on investment than a typical peasantry build.

Now about industry + commerce specifically: Considering the Wu Xing system, each industry building decreases the cost of blue buildings (commerce) by 10% which should be taken advantage of. For a small city with three building slots that is going to be an industry / commerce hub, you should build it like this for maximum yields: i) state workshop, ii) inn, iii) private workshop. These three together yield the most for the three building slots in general. When you upgrade your city further for fourth slot, then you should add marketplace.

Now, the above is the rule of thumb. But since life isn't as simple as that, you have to take into account which commandery specifically we are talking about and what specialty buildings it has as it will have a direct effect on what the priority will be. For instance, for Jianye specifically due to its specialty buildings it is more profitable mathematically to go i) state workshop, ii) inn iii) marketplace (essentially swapping marketplace and private workshop for third and fourth place).

I recommend 'Serious Trivia' on youtube because he has very good video guides on commanderies and what's best way to build each commandery, but again remember the 'best' is relative, not definite.

[Jerroser]

Originally posted by tiantian582:

I could be wrong. But once you become hegomon. No one is willing to trade with you. So all of those commerce buildings are a waste. In the early game. I suppose trade isnt bad. But I still think its tiresome. Since many factions need to bribed in order to have trade agreements with. Late game. Everyone wants to fight you and see you as a strategic threat. And your treachery levels probably arent all that good. Considering all the factions you may have destroyed to become as strong as you have. It makes sense. Because the end goal of every faction is to off each other. Doesnt make sense to scratch someone's back who is very close to killing you. You would rather scratch the back of someone who isnt strong enough to kill you.

So I mostly go industrial. That way I dont build wasted buildings. Or have trade become a deciding factor on whether or not I go to war with someone. Because all if my income is domestic. Based off farms and industrial centers.

Although many commerce related buildings do boost income from trade by increasing your trading power its still a completely separate form of income. If theoretically no one on the map was willing to trade with you, you would still get all of the "income from commerce" generated by your settlements. Also from my personal experience even in the late game there are always some factions willing to trade with you, sure it will be less likely with the other two kingdoms but there are often plenty of smaller factions that are easy to get a trade agreement with.

[Songsong]

So if no one trade with me. Does it mean my Commerce are a huge waste?

[Jerroser]

Originally posted by tiantian582:

I used to think so. Jerroser indicates that domestic trade also counts as commerce. You would still get income from commerce buildings even if you have zero trade partners.

Basically the game sees "Commerce" and "Trade" as entirely different income sources. I assume that as you imply commerce income is more to represent general trading within your cities and faction rather than external trade with other factions. It's an easy mistake to make through as I can see why you might think they are the same thing.

With any building the generate commerce it effectively works in the same way as income from peasantry or industry. So within a province you control if you have a building that says +100 income from commerce and another which gives 50% increase to trade from commerce you should get a fixed 150 income, irrelevant of any external trade agreements you have.

The value of trade with other factions is determined by a separate figure called your trade power, although it can also be boosted by commerce generating buildings and reforms (blue branch, with some purple).