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Trade Guide

Trade is the engine that turns a single struggling settlement into a thriving Roman region. Once you expand past your first town, you can link specialized settlements with trade and travel routes, sell surplus goods on the market, and import the materials your citizens demand. This guide explains how trade routes work, how to price goods, and how to build a trade network that funds everything else.

How Trade Routes Work

Nova Roma supports multiple towns connected by trade and travel routes. Once you establish multiple towns, you can link them to share resources, distribute goods, and generate ongoing trade income. Each town can specialize in a different economic activity, and the routes between them move the right goods to the right place.

Multi-town specialization: The default map setup includes Belvau (main hub), Fontebrac (agriculture), and Rocemarée (tourism). Develop each town with a clear focus. Farming towns supply food, tourism towns generate visitor income, and main hubs handle administration and research.

Warehouse logistics: Warehouses have transport ranges. Place warehouses strategically to bridge gaps between production towns and consumer hubs. Buildings within warehouse range automatically access stored goods, so a well-placed warehouse removes the need for a direct road between every pair of buildings.

Trade income scales with town development: As your towns grow and produce more goods, trade route income increases. Diversifying exports — managing multiple product types rather than relying on a single trade good — provides more stable income and protects you when one good's price drops.

Setting Up Trade Networks

Trade routes connect your towns and determine what goods flow between them. Proper route planning reduces supply chain bottlenecks and increases overall economic output. Start with the highest-value connection — the farming town feeding the main hub — then layer in tourism and luxury routes as your region matures.

Route Type	Purpose	Example
Crop Transport	Move raw crops from farming towns to processing centers	Fontebrac to Belvau
Tourism Routes	Bring visitors to tourist destinations	Main hub to Rocemarée
Scenic Routes	Enhance tourism appeal with scenic connections	Between attractions and hotels

The Market and Resource Exchange

Every town has a Market (or Forum) where surplus goods are valued and sold. The market price of a good rises when your region is short of it and falls when you produce a glut. This is the core of resource exchange: overproduce a staple like grain in Fontebrac, ship the surplus to Belvau's market, and the sale funds your administration and research. The same market is where you set import orders for goods you cannot make locally.

Pricing discipline matters. Selling everything the moment it is produced floods the local market and crashes the price. Instead, hold a buffer and sell in steady batches, or ship the excess to a different town whose market values it higher. Inter-town price differences are where smart traders make their Denarii.

Price tip: Watch the market trend arrow before you sell. A falling price means oversupply — hold or export. A rising price means scarcity — sell now and let your trade routes replenish the stock.

Export Strategy by Town

Each specialized town should export what it makes best and import what it lacks. The table below ranks the most profitable export goods by origin town and shows the buyer that pays the most.

Belvau

Main hub. Administrative center, housing, and research. Import crops from Fontebrac, export processed goods and crafted wares.

Fontebrac

Agriculture hub. Focus on farming, granaries, and crop production. Export raw and processed food to other towns and the market.

Rocemarée

Tourism destination. Hotels, scenic routes, Lighthouse, and attractions. High beauty scores drive visitor income and luxury demand.

Export Good	Origin	Best Buyer	Base Value	Margin
Grain	Fontebrac	Belvau market	12	Steady
Wine	Fontebrac	Rocemarée inns	28	High
Pottery	Belvau	Rocemarée tourists	34	High
Ironware	Belvau	Fontebrac farms	40	Medium
Luxury Goods	Rocemarée	Belvau bourgeoisie	65	Very High

Import Strategy and Trade Priorities

Imports keep your citizens happy and your production chains running when local supply falls short. The bourgeoisie demand luxury goods and high-end services, and unhappy citizens pay less tax. A balanced import plan protects your tax base while your own industry scales up to replace the imports.

Priority Route	Goods	Frequency	Tip
Fontebrac to Belvau	Grain, Vegetables	Continuous	Feeds the hub population first
Belvau to Rocemarée	Pottery, Ironware, Wine	Daily	Supplies tourist demand
Rocemarée to Belvau	Luxury Goods	Daily	Keeps bourgeoisie happy

Trading With Other Cities

Beyond your own towns, you can trade with neutral and rival cities on the campaign map. These external partners pay premium prices for goods they cannot produce and sell you rare materials at a discount during surplus events. External trade is best used for high-value, low-volume goods — luxury wares, rare stone, and crafted masterpieces — because the caravan fee makes bulk staples unprofitable to ship far.

Caravan tip: Reserve long-distance trade for high-margin luxury goods. Shipping cheap grain across the map costs more in caravan fees than the grain is worth. Keep staples moving only between your own nearby towns.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make the most Denarii from trade?

Specialize your towns, then connect them with the highest-value routes first. Ship Fontebrac's wine and grain to Belvau, craft them into pottery and ironware in the hub, and sell the finished goods to Rocemarée's tourists and the bourgeoisie. Diversify your exports so a single price drop never sinks your income, and use the market trend arrow to time your sales.

Should I focus on trade or taxes?

Early game, taxes from a growing citizen population are your reliable base. Trade becomes dominant once you run multiple specialized towns, because route income scales with development and is not capped by tax pressure. The strongest economies run both: taxes fund stability, trade funds expansion.

Why are my trade routes not earning anything?

The usual cause is a broken warehouse chain — if the producer and the consumer are outside transport range of any warehouse, goods never move. Second, check that the destination actually demands the good; shipping grain to a town that already has a glut earns almost nothing. Place warehouses on the route and match goods to demand.

Related Guides

End of Trade Guide