Europa Universalis 4: How Does Trade Work?
Europa Universalis 4 uses a complex system to simulate markets and shipping across the globe. Even if your nation doesn't produce expensive goods, you can still make plenty of money if those goods pass through your territory. Some nations, like Venice, Portugal, and Oman to name a few, excel at becoming fabulously wealthy this way.
Related: Europa Universalis 4: The Most Powerful Starting Nations
Most players can be perfectly successful and content by seizing the world's centers of trade and letting the money flow into their treasury, but a player who knows how the trade system works can get even more out of it.
Every region in the world has several Trade Nodes, which represent individual markets for goods. The location of each Trade Node and the connections between them are fixed and can never be changed during the game by any means. However, Nodes can be made more or less valuable by manipulating the flow of expensive goods toward or away from them.
The amount of control a nation has over a Trade Node is represented by their Trade Power there. Trade Power comes from holding land within the Trade Node's territory and sending Light Ships to protect trade routes there. Merchants sent to a Trade Node also contribute Trade Power, but the amount is negligible. Think of Trade Power as your country's shares in the Trade Node - the greater the overall Trade Power you have there compared to other nations, the more money you'll be able to make.
Provinces marked as Centers Of Trade provide a disproportionately high amount of Trade Power compared to others. Holding a Node's Center Of Trade is vital to controlling that market.
A Node's Trade Value represents the amount of money there at a given time. If you have a Merchant in a
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