Are you wondering how to create trade routes in Victoria 3? After all, you’ll struggle to succeed without them! Here’s what you need to know.
Trade, and therefore trade routes, are the cornerstones of Victoria 3. It is set in a time where power had ceased to be measured in the size of your castle. What matters instead is the size of your back pocket.
And nothing makes a back pocket bulge quite like boats full of bounty from Bangkok to Britain. The 19th century shrank the world and made international trade not only possible but necessary. In Victoria 3, the ability to trade relies on your nation not having an isolationist trade policy. If you do, you’ll first need to change that: you can read about changing laws here.
Being able to trade is also is dependent on you being the leader of your own market. If you are the junior member of a customs union, or a puppet state then sorry, but it’s only the leading nation that’s able to make trade routes.
If you do have the capacity to make trade routes in Victoria 3, start by clicking on the green ‘trade’ lens at the bottom of the screen. There, you’ll see a tab for import and export. Any resource that isn’t greyed out in these tabs is able to be traded. Click on the chosen resource and it will give you the possible trade routes you can create and who they’d be with.
If you want to look at what trade is beneficial, head to the market display. That will show you what is in demand for your market.
You are not able to trade with anyone that has embargoed you, and each trade route costs you bureaucracy. Negative bureaucracy is very impactful on taxation and can cost you lots. You can plan for this by building government administration buildings or by making trade deals. Trade deals cost a set amount of diplomacy and make it so all trade routes between these two markets don’t cost your bureaucracy.
