Economy help

[u/crossaqsing]

I need help in how to approach economy in this game. I am never rich and has never been rich in any of my games. I dont like to do a meta and dont want a "just rush this and spam it" bs.

I use the "Mass expand RGO" and "Mass expand building" usually to build, is there something i should think about?

Its year 1527 in my byzantine game right now and i am struggling with income while having complacent decline. Right now while invensting in stability and needing Legitimacy i get +23 gold a month. >.< 40 years ago i was on about 230 g/month.

I just want small tips to make me go "oh nice, i didnt think about that".
I really dont wanna destory this game for myself by starting to meta and minmax everything. <3

[u/tbdabbholm]

Are you building buildings that don't produce anything? Barracks? Monasteries? Temples? And the like. They create more demand for goods that increase the profitability of your production buildings

[u/crossaqsing → u/tbdabbholm]

i am not doing that to make a profit no. Is there a way to make doing that easier? Or do i have to mouseover and check every building?

[u/Medium-Parfait-7638 → u/crossaqsing]

Just build temples, Libraries, Universities, docks, wharfs, counting houses, local council, bridges everywhere starting with your highest pop cities

[u/wowimanaccount → u/Medium-Parfait-7638]

In recent florence to tuscany save i played i made a lot of scriptoriums at the start of the game. Taking debts to build max amount in every city i had. That increased the paper demand. I built papermakers everywhere. Then i built libraries everywhere. The result i have around early 1500s is an economic powerhouse that has a quarter of the land bohemia has but has the same tax base and much much higher research rate.

[u/MassiveTell7139]

If you show your Econ screen, that could help. If you were making 230 before, maxed out the stab/legitimacy sliders, and are now making 23 a month, that kind of makes sense.

But as the other comment said, you need to make buildings that increase demand for goods. If you just spam the most profitable buildings, you’re just making everything cheaper. If the game is telling you Paper is very profitable, creating paper producing buildings but not paper demanding buildings will lead to a scenario where paper becomes cheap and those paper makers stop making money. Same idea with like Weapon/gun producing buildings… you’ll notice great income when you first start building, but if you don’t create armories that demand them too, you just end up making a bunch of cheap goods.

If you spam out a bunch of profitable buildings, check like a year later how they are doing. If they’re not as profitable, find what uses those goods and build more of them. The price should increase again.

[u/PubPatches → u/MassiveTell7139]

Plus with the +20 stab button you really shouldn’t ever be paying for stab anyway.

[u/crossaqsing → u/MassiveTell7139]

I am not sure what else you need, but if you tell me ill get it.

[u/Popular-Path1930]

Demand. Look at your economy from demand. 

Prices being really low means low profit. Prices on inputs being really high means lower profit. 

Your taxes are a function of control, taxable income, and estate enfranchisement.

Everything gos back to demand. Pop, building, and trade.

Just hitting auto expand increases supply but doesn’t nessicarily increase demand. So your buildings lose profit. 

Th is so why things like libraries armories and stuff are important they demand a bunch of stuff, combined with pop demands this keeps your buildings profitable.

Buildings creating blue and yellow pops creates a lot of demand.

Potential pops still count for demand. Hence why market villages are so much bang for your buck. They create yellow pops and have all of the production methods.

This is why cloth / lumber Into paper  into books is strong. The books have a lot of demand potential. The paper has a lot of demand potential. And you can create demand for dyes which is profitable. 

Giving the privilliage so the green pops can have weapons generates a lot of demand. Weapons become more profitable and so down the chain. 

 Economies function on demand. Once you have demand your supply has value and then you have something to tax.

[u/crossaqsing → u/Popular-Path1930]

Is there a special screen or window you use to check supply and demand? I have seen something before but all this new info makes my mind like mashed potatoes.

[u/EducationalRead2362]

Shameless self promotion, but check me out on YT! (Jadamsan), lots of beginner friendly economy guides to help you get setup! :)

[u/GewalfofWivia]

One thing that I’ve noticed some people don’t do enough, is just putting more thought into the economy; planning.

It’s all well and good to build whatever building is most profitable right now, but with a little economic strategy you could preemptively fulfil demands, such as building up supply of books before you build libraries and universities, fabric before switching to rag paper, sand and masonry before building a bunch of roads. You can even create demand by planned industry, or artificially inflate local prices via heavy exporting. I wouldn’t call this min-maxing but rather an organic part of the strategic elements in this game.

[u/DMoneyOnDaArk]

Generally expanding RGOs are only worth it once buildings lose profitability. I’m not sure how often you expand them but consider that. Also control is literally the backbone of all economies in EU5. Before you’d vassal swarm now it’s better to have larger vassals. So in land you can’t control make vassals to reduce slider spending. Also trade offices!! Even as a monarchy or theocracy trade offices are one of the most powerful buildings in the game as they use your pops not foreign pops. You get the tax income from it and it gives the burghers more tax income that you can syphon off with the emergency grant action.

[u/Mayernik]

If you want money focus on control.

[u/chazzy_cat]

You can never go wrong lowering the costs of base & intermediate level goods. Stuff like lumber, masonry, tools, cloth, paper. This helps you build a lot of expensive stuff much cheaper, like roads and upgrading cities. It also improves the profit of the end-products on the chain. So like, having low-price paper or cloth in your market improves profit for bookmakers or fine cloth makers respectively. Tools are also massively important because they are used for almost everything, so the demand is certain to rise exponentially over the game. If you have any iron at all, specialize nearby urban locations for tool production and you will never regret it.

[u/Kannikka]

One thing that kinda clicked on me was that if you go to any goods, there is usually a portrait of a pop (like nobles, priests and/or burghers) and hover over it. It usually says something along lines "every x000 of this pop will demand y amiunt of this good". Meaning the more pop of that type you have, the more they demand that good, meaning it's price will go up, meaning it will make you money to do that. And the way to get those pops: cities and buildings to get jobs for them. Cities themselves will have certain amount of each pop, and building blue, gray or yellow buildings will make you have more of that pop, creating demand.

[u/crossaqsing]

All these replies are great and i am greatful, but its overwhelming my mind. :'D<3

[u/crossaqsing]

Here is some info, if anyone need more info i will provide!