Priming the Pump, or, How to Get the World Economy Back on its Feet

[Straight Arrow]

The following is a combination of questions and suggestions that were sent to players in a pbem game.
We would appreciate if forum members would take the time to look the ideas over; any advice is most welcome.

"Everyone is suffering from over production and low demand and hence low world prices, etc. etc.
Dumping our surplus into their markets was not working; how many of us are keeping industries running that are operating at a loss? Excess stockpiles automatically lose a percentage through shrinkage; it might be wise to shut down any structures that are just contributing to excess stockpiles.

Remember that your biggest market is your internal market and sales there satisfy your population’s needs. The Contentment index will rise, more or less in proportion to the quantity and quality of the products that you release for sale.

Let’s all check our domestic market numbers. Are you meeting the needs of your population? And does your local production offered a wide enough range of Food, Common Goods, and Luxury goods?
Consider seeing how much of what your domestic market can handle. Set the sliders to 80% for most goods, except when it is desirable to cut back domestic consumption of particular items, such as manufactured goods, for strategic reasons

Could you increase contentment by expanding the quantity and variety of products offered for sale?　
Here’s a thought. We might be able to prime the pump if we all pull together. If every player listed 1 to 2 commodities they wished to export and we all purchased 1 or more of those items, it might raise overall world demand. Increased world demand should also increase the price of commodities and thus again raising the amount of private capital. At the very least, these purchased goods could be resold in our domestic market, replenishing private capital while also increasing choice for your people.

As to the questions are you meeting the needs of your population and is your local production offering a wide range of Food, Common Goods, and Luxury goods, to check: select tab F4 (Industry and Commerce); Look at the 4th row down, mouse over the rice, fruit, or whatever icon; It should say ____ belongs to the ___ group. Population can buy at most # wares and you are selling to them a total of #; this is your national demand and you should strive to fill this quote. The wider range of wares offered on your internal market, the more the Contentment index will rise,

As to the question of how many goods should a league member purchase, perhaps if a offered good is a cheaper type item let each nation attempt to purchase 2 units from each offerer; if the cost of a item is in the middle range, let us attempt to purchase 1 unit each.

Players who cannot access the trade areas where these offered goods are available will need a nation to step in as a middle man to purchase and reexport the goods.

As almost everyone needs coal, let’s consider taking that merchandise out of any pump priming offerings.
In addition to this, perhaps we could all purchase a small amount of third world items like coffee, sugar and tropical fruit?

For big spenders, if you can scrape together the cash, consider making foreign investments in structures that build goods in short supply. Before doing this, make sure you have a commercial agreement and at least a 25% relationship.

Finally, does anyone know if lowering tariffs will help to increase international sales?"

[loki100]

I think the key is never to play as a mercantalist - this is fundamental for SP games but I think matters in any case. If you can buy something, don't produce it - that simple rule goes a long way to lubricate the world economy.

edit - remember that unemployment, as such, is not a real issue - ie unused potential labour does not become angry.

You'll get money back via shipping fees, sales to your own population and possibly resales.

building in other countries really helps - again this is mainly an AI issue but the AI is not great at building say coal mines so if you want all that potential US coal in the market you may need to go and own their coal mines.

lowering tarrifs doesn't directly produce more trade (possibly one of the gaps in the model) but it does indirectly. Lower price for imports means more can be bought by your population so more imports can be absorbed.

[Pocus]

If you feel like adding a few scripts for the major nations and the most important resources (coal) so that the AI control and add some mines for a price (perhaps a price in inflation if money is lacking), then we can incorporate that.

[Tom]

Hello all ... I tried searching the forum, but did not see how to edit the industrial structures.

The problem is this: there has been a worldwide glut of cotton/wool since the beginning of the game into the 1860s. While not so much problem for play, it has a huge negative impact to the Confederate States of America, which IRL was not only heavily dependent upon cotton export, but also a key supplier to Britain (and maybe to France?). That was a reason there was a possibility of Britain & France recognizing the Confederacy and assisting it against the USA Union.

So I would like to modify the input/output to Textile factories, greatly raising the demand for cotton/wool (such as lowering the Capital input and increasing the Cotton/Wool input, so as to not make them too unprofitable but drive up the demand).

Could you tell me, or do you know of a post where it explains how to modify structures?

I suspect it's in the folder: VGN\GameData\Structures, but don't know how I could edit. And besides, maybe it's better to do via script?

...

As a side note ... we're now crossing into September 1861 and the Confederacy still has no generals appearing .... meanwhile IRL some were already involved in July 1961. The Union has well over a dozen; the Confederacy only has the 2 locked ones of President Davis & Navy Secretary Mallory. Is there an event which should trigger for the other generals to appear?

[Tom]

Oh maybe it's possible to edit the .str files ... make a backup and just use them as they are there ... Will see if they automatically trigger next time I start the game.

[Tom]

Hello all ... I tried searching the forum, but did not see how to edit the industrial structures.

The problem is this: there has been a worldwide glut of cotton/wool since the beginning of the game into the 1860s. While not so much problem for play, it has a huge negative impact to the Confederate States of America, which IRL was not only heavily dependent upon cotton export, but also a key supplier to Britain (and maybe to France?). That was a reason there was a possibility of Britain & France recognizing the Confederacy and assisting it against the USA Union.

So I would like to modify the input/output to Textile factories, greatly raising the demand for cotton/wool (such as lowering the Capital input and increasing the Cotton/Wool input, so as to not make them too unprofitable but drive up the demand).

Could you tell me, or do you know of a post where it explains how to modify structures?

I suspect it's in the folder: VGN\GameData\Structures, but don't know how I could edit. And besides, maybe it's better to do via script?

...

As a side note ... we're now crossing into September 1861 and the Confederacy still has no generals appearing .... meanwhile IRL some were already involved in July 1961. The Union has well over a dozen; the Confederacy only has the 2 locked ones of President Davis & Navy Secretary Mallory. Is there an event which should trigger for the other generals to appear?

--- Not sure why the generals didn't trigger. I copied their events, changed $USA to $CSA with $Richmond, then forced them to trigger.