Because the game has so many different commodities and so many different ports in so many different regions where do you even begin to make money? Also check; Sailing Era Beginner’s Guide.
Sailing Era Trading Tips to Make Money
- Every time you find a new port, get into the habit of checking their market for goods. When you do this the game saves this information in the Knowledge tab of your menu. With this information, you can click on the port on the map and it will tell you what goods are sold there for future reference. In the Knowledge tab, you can also search for a specific good and the game will tell you what ports you have found that sell that good and potentially what cultural sphere that good is associated with. This is very useful when you need to find a good for a quest, for example.
- When you are in the market, hit the R key and the price of each item will change from a raw price to a percentage. The percentage is based on the relative value of the goods compared to that port’s base value. If you are buying items, look for goods that are less than 80% (70% or less is ideal). when selling goods look for values above 100%. This will guarantee a profit.
- When selling goods, the game will tell you if the goods you are selling are being sold for a profit by showing the value/percentage with a green color. If the color is white, then you are not making a profit. The game includes the price you bought it at and any negative status from breakage or wetness. Also, the base value of an item is different in different cultural spheres. Items will not sell well in ports that also sell that item.
- Ports have economic status. At the start of each month, the game checks the economic status of every port. The status can be Normal, Depression, Prosperous, Plague or Cultural. You find the economic status of a port by clicking on it on the map. What you are looking for is to buy products from a port in Depression where the goods are cheap and sell those goods to a port that is Prosperous (those ports are easy to find as they glow orange on the map).
- Ports also have a cultural sphere. A port’s cultural sphere plays a big role in determining the base value that a port will buy or sell a good for. Goods can have different base values in different cultural spheres. When a port is having a cultural economic status, it will say which cultural sphere it wants to buy products from for higher prices. If you can capitalize on that, you can make good money. A good example of high profits from cultural sphere trading is buying gold, diamonds and ivory from West Africa cultural sphere and selling them in any cultural sphere in Europe. You don’t even need to make use of the depression/prosperous angle, just normal value is enough to make good profits due to cultural sphere differences.
- When a port is experiencing a plague, you can sell them medical goods at very high values. I have seen medicine sold in plague cities for over 200% of its base value. Combine that with a city selling medicine in a depression and you have quite a big payday.
- Goods in your cargo hold can become damaged or get wet. The longer you keep an item in the hold, the worse its condition gets. These conditions will lower the base value and potentially cause you to lose profits. You can alleviate (not prevent) negative conditions by having a Preparation room on your flagship staffed with a crew member with high Organization skill.
- If you have an Accounting room on your flagship staffed with someone with high Calculating skill, then every time you sell goods you get a bonus to the overall value. This is just free money.
- If you have a Studio room on your flagship staffed with someone with high Selection skill, then every day you are out at sea, there is a chance that a random good will upgrade to a premium quality (denoted by a purple star). This increases the base value by 50%. Again, it’s just free money. Yes, premium goods can get damaged or wet.