TOTAL WAR WIKI

Trading Port (ETW building)

Trading Port
Category: Port - Trade
Level: 0
Turns to build: 2
Building cost: 1250
European
Trading Port
Indian
Trading Port
Middle-Eastern
Trading Port
Enables
Etw eu port trade lvl2.png

Commercial Port

Shipping goods of any kind by land is difficult and expensive. Any item that has to travel more than a few miles goes by ship wherever possible.

Most roads are simply terrible, and bulk cargoes (such as coal) must go by ship anyway: it is the only way of moving goods cheaply and relatively quickly. It also makes the whole world a marketplace, even if the customers are not sure what to make of the goods they are being sent (British merchants insisted on exporting heavy woollen cloth to India for years, even though there was no obvious market for it).

Coastal trade can also be very profitable. For example, a “cheese fleet” did nothing but shuttle back and forth between London and the northwest of England, bringing Cheshire cheeses to the London market. By a happy accident of geology, Cheshire had rock salt mines that provided a preservative for the local cheese to make the sea journey to London. Although salty, this was undoubtedly healthier than most food on a gentleman’s table in the 18th Century!