Recruiting Merchants in BI?

[ebeard]

Is there a way to recruit a merchant as East or Western roman empire in barbarian invasion? If so, can someone point me in the rigth direction?

I know it worked in RTW vanilla remastered, but when I build the merchant buildings the option never comes up? Seems like it cripples me compared to the greeks who have theirs.

[Vicboss]

Isn't there some mechanic for WRE and ERE where it points out that the Roman currency is debased in this time period and so I'm assuming you can't build them until you fix that debasement somehow. There is actually an achievement to restore the Roman currency so I think it's a new mechanic they have added on top of the merchant mechanic.

[ebeard]

I hope that's true but it's unmentioned in the wiki as far as I can tell.

[Megawasp]

The Roman currency was debased, meaning coins were made with less valuable metals, like copper, instead of gold or silver. The player has to reverse this by acquiring more gold and silver.
Focus on mining. If a city can build a gold/silver mine - build it.