Humankind
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Trade is part of the diplomacy that allows you access to a resource owned by other Empires via purchasing Trade Licenses and establishing Trade Routes. Both purchased resources and established Trade Routes can provide considerable benefits, especially Money incomes. The Merchant affinity has unique bonuses towards trade, which makes a Merchant gameplay heavily centered around trade and Trade Routes.

Overview[]

As part of the Diplomacy, the trade purchase in Humankind mainly happens on the Trade Tab of the Diplomacy Screen.

Buying a resource[]

Once a resource or Trade License is purchased,

  • You will have a copy of the resource and its benefits;
  • A Trade Route that connects one of your Cities and the Resource Deposit will be created on the map, reflecting that the merchants of your Empire are buying that resource and bringing it back.
  • Trade Routes have their own Money benefits as well.
  • Trade Routes can be broken by war, ransacking, or a downgrade in Diplomatic Treaties.

Selling a resource[]

Selling a resource works the same way.

  • The AI Empires will buy your extracted resources automatically.
  • You will receive a one-time Money income as selling income.
  • Selling will also create Trade Routes on the map.
  • The seller will not lose the traded away resources; the buyer is accessing a copy of it.

Access and Purchase Resources[]

Access[]

First, both Empires need to sign the Trade Treaties in order to allow each other to purchase each other's resources.

Purchase[]

Once both Empires signed the Treaty, you can check the Trade Tab to see the resources the other Empire has access to.

  • You can purchase the Trade License for the selected resources on the Trade Tab using Money.
    • You only have to pay once to get lifelong access to the selected Deposit (unless something unfortunate happens).
    • You can also purchase the resource by directly clicking on the symbols of developed resources on the map, if you have the vision. The purchasing window will pop up.
  • Once a License for a resource is purchased, a Trade Route is created and will grant you access to the resource.

Costs and Transporting Methods[]

Each purchase has a Base Price and a Transportation Prices, based on the distance and the method of transportation between your Empire and the Deposit you buying.

The Price of the ressource will go Up if somebody already bought the ressource ( Source ).

Three transport options - Land, Water, and Air - are available as the game progress through the eras.

  • Land Transport - Only use land routes: this is the default option, with a balance between cost and safety.
  • Naval Transport - Use land and sea routes, but prefer transport by the sea whenever possible: this is cheaper, but Harbors and Trade Ports are vulnerable to ransacking.
  • Aerial Transport - Use land and air routes, but prefer transport by aircraft whenever possible: this is the safest option, but also the most expensive.
Costs for Strategic Resources
Resource Base Cost
Horse 10
Copper 20
Iron 30
Saltpetre 270
Coal 60
Oil 270
Aluminium 270
Uranium 540

Trade Route Mechanics[]

Whenever a trade is established, a Trade Route will be created on the map, connects the resources Deposit to the buyer's nearest City, while passing through various land and sea Territories.

Trade Node, Trading Post, and Trade Port[]

When crossing a Territory, the Trade Routes will always pass through certain specific points, known as Trade Nodes. They are the indications on the map about if and where Trade Routes are passing through.

  • If Trade Routes are crossing an unclaimed Territory, a Trading Post will be created at the same tile as Trade Node, indicating there are trade routes going through this Territory.
    • Trading Post used to be called Roundhouse in an earlier version of the game.
    • Trading Post will always have a 1 tile vision on its own, revealing the general direction of a Trade Route in the Fog of War. This vision range can be increased if you have the Merchant Reputation Badge.
  • If Trade Routes are crossing a claimed Territory, they will always pass through the Administrative Center or the Main Plaza of that Territory.

In addition, if Trade Routes are going through from land to water or from water to land, a Trade Port will be created on the coastal tile.

  • Trade Port will always have a 1 tile vision on its own, revealing the general direction of a Trade Route in the Fog of War. This vision range can be increased if you have the Merchant Reputation Badge.
  • When a Harbor is available in that territory, Trade Routes will always pass through the Harbor, instead of generating a Trade Port.


Suspending and Breaking Trade Routes[]

Trade Routes can be suspended temporarily in below situations:

  • The seller or the buyer are having on-going Demands with the other.
    • Unsettled Demands will cause an embargo happening between the two Empires, unless the Demands are accepted, defused, or withdrawn.
  • The Empires or Independent People along a Trade Route are going to war with each other, which will disrupt all the trade passing through them.
  • The Empires along a Trade Route downgraded the Treaties to Forbid New Trade or Closed Borders; Trade Routes cannot cross into these Empires' Territories anymore and must take a detour.
  • A part of the Trade Route changed hands from one Empire or Independent People to another.

Trade Routes can be broken in below situations:

If a player blocked, ransacked, bombarded, or destroyed part of the Trade Route, the trade will be stopped.

Normally, Trade is impossible between war enemies. However, the International Trading Civic can allow Empires have the ability of Trade at war. This will authorize trading of goods between Empires even in a diplomatic state of War.

Trading Benefits[]

Resources benefits and Trade Routes benefits are the two main gains of trading; selling will provide an one-time income as well.

Selling Income[]

The seller will receive an one-time Money payment from the buyer when a resource is sold.

Resource Benefits[]

Trading can grant you a copy of the Luxury and Strategic Resources you don't own, provide the full effect and the bonuses of the said resources.

Trade Route Benefits[]

Influence and Faith Spread

  • Trade Routes can spread cultural Influence and State Religion from the seller to the buyer (but not vice versa).
  • Territories at the importing end of the Trade Route will usually receive a more powerful Faith/Influence pressure from the exporting Territories, with a much smaller reduction of the pressure by distance and sometime without any reduction at all. This means a major Exporting Empire with various Luxuries and Strategics, will more likely to spread its culture and Religion to the rest of world.

Trade Route Base Yield

  • Every on-going Trade Route will generate +1Money to a City's income when passing through a City, similar to a toll tax.

Infrastructure Effects Certain infrastructures can add more Money income on Trade Routes:

Civic Effects

Emblematic Quarter Effects

Legacy Trait Effects

Merchant Cultures' Unique Benefits[]

When playing as a Merchant affinity culture, there are certain unique benefits regarding trade:


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