Production Costs (100%)

Port Royale 4 Production Costs at 100% using balanced price for materials

Introduction

The following guide lists the production costs for 100% efficiency and uses the balanced price (2 green bars) for raw materials when manufacturing refined goods.
Business in PR4 comes with 20, 40 or 60 workers depending on business type. The daily worker costs are 240, 480 or 720 respectively.
Number of workers (-> worker costs), raw material costs and number of produced items per day can be found in the trade and building menu in the game and determine the production costs per item.
The balanced price for each good is the last number in brackets, taken from the in game market.

Example : Grain

Grain : 480 / 12 = 40 (43)

A farm with 40 workers cost 480 per day and produce 12 Grain (100%) per day. The average production costs for Grain is 40, the balanced price when the market has 2 green bars is 43.
(If using 4 farms on 110% cropland production costs will be lower.)

In general the 100% production costs are below the balanced price, allowing the player to supply the local market with goods and make a small profit while AI and player trade routes can pick up the goods from the market and sell them to other cities for another profit.
In case of Grain (100%) the profit is 12 x (43-40) = 36 per farm per day.
(Building more farms in groups of 4 increases production efficiency and so lowers production costs with the risk of oversupplying the local market which may lead to a price drop from 43 to 30 (75% of the 100% production cost.)

(Luxuries are an exception since for some of them the 100% production costs are above the balanced price. See below)

Basic Goods

Grain : 480 / 12 = 40 (43)
Fruits : 480 / 8 = 60 (64)
Wood : 480 / 12 = 40 (43)
Corn : 480 / 10 = 48 (51)
Vegetables : 480 / 8 = 60 (64)
Sugar : 480 / 8 = 60 (64)
Beer : (480 + 3x43) / 6 = 101.5 (108)
Bricks : 240 / 12 = 20 (21)

Notes :
Beer : 3 Grain -> 6 Beer

Demanded Goods

Hemp : 480 / 8 = 60 (64)
Ropes : (480 + 4x64) / 4 = 184 (194)
Rum : (240 + 2x64 + 2x43) / 4 = 113.5 (118)
Meat : (480 + 4x51) / 4 = 171 (181)
Metal : 480 / 8 = 60 (64)
Coal : 480 / 8 = 60 (64)

Notes :
Ropes : 4 Hemp -> 4 Ropes
Rum : 2 Sugar + 2 Wood -> 4 Rum
Meat : 4 Corn -> 4 Meat

Export & Craft

Cotton : 720 / 12 = 60 (64)
Cloth : (480 + 6x64) / 6 = 144 (151)
Tobacco : 480 / 6 = 80 (86)
Coffee : 720 / 6 = 120 (129)
Cacao : 720 / 6 = 120 (129)
Metalware : (480 + 6x64 + 3x64) / 6 = 176 (183)

Notes :
Cloth : 6 Cotton -> 6 Cloth
Metalware : 6 Metal + 3 Coal -> 6 Metalware

Luxury Goods

Clothing : (480 + 2x151) / 2 = 391 (324)
Ceramics : (240 + 4x21 + 2x64) / 4 = 113 (118)
Pastry : (480 + 2x43 + 64) / 2 = 315 (334)
Furniture : (480 + 2x43 + 183) / 2 = 374.5 (351)
Luxury Items : (480 + 2x118 + 183) / 2 = 449.5 (361)

Notes :
Clothing : 2 Cloth -> 2 Clothing
Ceramics : 4 Bricks + 2 Coal -> 4 Ceramics
Pastry : 2 Grain + Sugar -> 2 Pastry
Furniture : 2 Wood + Metalware -> 2 Furniture
Luxury Items : 2 Ceramics + Metalware -> 2 Luxury Items

Additional Notes :
Luxuries are different in the way that Clothing, Furniture and Luxury Items cost more to produce than the balanced price. You can still make a profit but only if there is a local shortage and the market is empty and so local prices are significantly higher.

Therefore in the early game it is more profitable to just deliver the raw materials, let AI produce these goods and then buy the finished products from the local market for the balanced price and distribute them with a nice profit.

[Shojib]

PR3 has building cost which is 25 per building. IDK if PR4 has that as well.

[Great Lakes Wildebeest]

I think i'm a tad late for this guide but I think the profit price for luxuries is more balanced now, I don't have the game open ATM but I remember that I was still making some profit on making furniture at the 2 bar price last time I was playing, but in the end I find its better just to make *Just* enough to get a town to 1 bar in a category of luxuries for all towns on a route to keep the profit per item high cause the happiness of the town won't care as long as they have the item not counting in what quantity.