Trade company

For the decision, see Indian Trade Company

A trade company is a collection of provinces in a trade company region that give the owner less tax, manpower, and sailors, but more trade power, trade goods (including production income) and naval force limit, than if the owner included them in states. Trade companies may be formed by any nation in any of the 16 trade company regions throughout Africa and Asia, provided they are not on the same continent as the nation's capital; this restriction puts African and especially Asian nations at a great disadvantage, unless they move their capital to Europe or Oceania. They are listed in the subject nation panel in the UI, but, unlike the English HEIC or Dutch VOC in real history, they do not actually have their own armies or administration – the land remains entirely under the nation's direct control.

Each trade company region is associated with a trade node, and contains exactly those provinces that are part of that trade node. To start a trade company, you can add all your eligible provinces in the node at once in the trade node UI, or one by one in the province UI. To be eligible, a province must not be part of a state, and any province that becomes part of a state will suffer automatic removal from the trade company. Removing a province from a trade company gives the "Left Trade Company" modifier for 5 years, preventing it from being added back during its duration as well as giving a −200% local goods produced modifier.

A country that has completed Expansion ideas may fabricate claims on any overseas province in a trade company region, even without the Wealth of Nations expansion.

Colonizing provinces in a trade company region does not change the local culture and religion, unlike in other regions; this rule applies even if the nation is unable to add such provinces to a trade company due to its capital being in the same continent as the provinces.

Effects of trade companies

Trade company regions.

Provinces in a trade company are subject to the following modifiers (additive as usual):

	+100%	Local trade power
	+0.5	Naval force limit
	−100%	Local manpower modifier
	−100%	Local sailors modifier
	−100%	Local tax modifier
	−200%	Local missionary strength
	+10%	Institution spread

Additionally, trade company provinces:

• Have minimum autonomy set to 0%
• Ignore all penalties from intolerance of the local religion or an unaccepted culture.
  • Negated penalties include local unrest, local tax, and goods produced.
  • Positive bonuses to local unrest from tolerated heretics are kept.
• Do not contribute to religious unity, regardless of religion.
• Do not have the embraced institutions of their owner spread to them. However, institutions may still spread through adjacency.
• Allow centers of trade to be upgraded.

When a trade company controls 51% of all the provincial trade power in its node, it grants +1 merchant.

The Common Sense DLC allows one subject interaction for trade companies. A trade company's trade power may be increased by 50% at the cost of +0.03 inflation to its owner per year. This interaction may be toggled on and off at will.

All provinces in the trade company region controlled by nations other than the trade company owner, and which are one or more institutions behind him, get a bonus to goods produced equal to half the percentage of the region's trade power the trade company controls. (The value of trade in a node depends on the value of the goods produced, so this benefits both the natives and the traders). Light ships protecting trade do not contribute to this, and can thus in certain cases cause the nation to earn less from trade as fewer goods will be produced. This bonus doesn't overlap with a merchant republic's similar bonus to goods produced.

List of trade company regions

Continent	Trade company region	Colour	Trade Node	Key provinces
Africa	West African Charter		Ivory Coast	Estuary: Cayor (1113), Benin (1147), Ngoyo (4079) INH: Gold Coast (1139)
Africa	South African Charter		Cape of Good Hope	INH: Cape (1177)
Africa	East African Charter		Zanzibar	CCOT: Zanzibar (1201), Mombasa (1202) Estuary: Quelimane (1192)
Asia	West Indian Charter		Gujarat	CCOT: Ahmadabad (2054) Estuary: Thatta (504)
Asia	Deccan Charter		Deccan	CCOT: Surat (517), Goa (2030)
Asia	East Indian Charter		Bengal	CCOT: Chittagong (568), Pegu (586) Estuary: Bengal Delta (561), Dhaka (564), Pathein (1815), Velanadu (534), Konaseema (5084)
Asia	Coromandel Charter		Coromandel	CCOT: Malabar (534), Tondainadu (539), Coromandel (540), Kotte (574)
Asia	North Indian Charter		Doab	ICOT: Delhi (522), Central Doab (524)
Asia	Burma Charter		Burma	ICOT: Ava (584)
Asia	Indonesian Charter		Malacca	CCOT: Malacca (596), Brunei (636), Pasai (2673)
Asia/Oceania (East Micronesia, Polynesia, West Micronesia only)	Philippine Charter		Philippines	INH: Manila (656)
Asia/Oceania (Vogelkop Peninsula only)	Moluccan Charter		The Moluccas	CCOT: Kalapa (630), Makassar (541)
Asia	Indochinese Charter		Siam	CCOT: Ayutthaya (600) Estuary: Prek Russey (2376)
Asia	South Chinese Charter		Canton	CCOT: Canton (667) Estuary: Canton (667), Hai Phong (2372)
Asia	East Chinese Charter		Hangzhou	CCOT: Hangzhou (684) Estuary: Suzhou (1822), Huai'an (2142)
Asia	North Chinese Charter		Beijing	CCOT: Beijing (1816)

Key:

• CCOT: Coastal Center of Trade
• ICOT: Inland Center of Trade
• INH: Important Natural Harbor

Note that while the Philippine and Moluccan Charters have provinces which are located in Oceania, these provinces are usually of low development and unlike to be enough to form powerful trade companies (for countries with Asian capitals). In particular, the Vogelkop Peninsula is one province short of the requirement for the generic "Expand Overseas" mission (5 provinces within one trade company region, across 3 regions).

Trade company investments

When a nation has established a trade company they can increase their returns by investing in them. These are accessed through the state interface and are visible at the bottom. There are 5 investments (of 2 tiers) available to build per area that provide their benefit to the entire area. There are also 5 related special investments each of which is limited to 1 per charter, that provide their benefit to the nation as a whole or to the entire trade company region.

	Name	Cost	Benefit to trade company provinces in this area	Benefit to entire area	Benefit to entire company	National benefits
Company Garrison	Local Quarter	300	+0.25 Supply limit +15% Local defensiveness
	Permanent Quarters	600	+0.50 Supply limit +30% Local defensiveness
	Officers' Mess	1000				+5 Land force limit
Harbor	Company Warehouse	300	+2 Trade power	+25% Local production efficiency
	Company Depot	600	+4 trade power	+50% Local production efficiency
	Admiralty	1000				+5 Naval force limit
Local Venture	Broker's Office	300	+25% Local production efficiency	+0.15 Local goods produced
	Broker's Exchange	600	+50% Local production efficiency	+0.30 Local goods produced
	Property Appraiser	1000			+50% Trade steering
Foreign Influence	[Root.GetAdjective] Settlements	300	+25% Local tax modifier	−7.5% Local development cost
	[Root.GetAdjective] Districts	600	+50% Local tax modifier	−15% Local development cost
	[Root.GetAdjective] Township	1000			+10% Trade value modifier	+0.10 Yearly army tradition
Governance	Company Administration	300	+25% Local manpower modifier +25% Local sailors modifier
	Military Administration	600	+50% Local manpower modifier +50% Local sailors modifier
	Governor General's Mansion	1000				−2% Ship cost

Strategy

Trade company penalties

Regarding the penalties of trade company:

• The reduction in tax -- sometimes manpower and sailors as well -- are counteracted by the removal of unaccepted culture penalties and autonomy penalties. The autonomy modifiers are applied multiplicatively after base tax/manpower/sailor has been modified by additive modifiers such as culture and trade company modifiers. Thus, as long as the additive modifiers do not sum to or below zero -- tax is usually helped by national modifiers -- the tax amount reduced by the -100% penalty is often mitigated by half from removal of culture and autonomy penalties.
• (DLC required) Various Trade Company Investments can mitigate the initial tax/manpower/sailor penalty. (Manpower and sailor investments are under “Governance”. As of 1.27, Governance investments are "hidden" in-game with a side scroll.)

Other unspecified benefits

Other benefits not specified in-game include:

• Trade Company provinces do not count towards Religious Unity. Thus, creating trade companies is a good alternative to religious conversion.
• Trade Company provinces do not count towards corruption due to having too many territories.
• Since trade company provinces do not gain embraced institution spread modifier, adding newly conquered Asian and African provinces to Trade Company can be a strategy to slow down institution spread and thus maintaining tech advantage over Asian and African countries.

Trade control by trade companies

As adding a province to a trade company doubles the local trade power, and at the same time if a trade company controls more than 51% of the trade powers in its trade node, the owner gains an extra merchant, centers of trade and estuaries which give flat bonuses to base local trade power are of greater importance to trade companies than other provinces of similar development. Constructing trade buildings in these provinces are valuable for the same reasons. Increasing mercantilism can also help wrestling trade controls for trade companies as each point of mercantilism adds 2% of provincial trade power.

South Africa Charter is a notable trade company region as it is initially fully unoccupied. Thus, any first colonizer of Cape (1177) can gain and maintain a merchant through trade control with little investment.

Footnotes

Diplomacy

Economy