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[madjoe5]

Is it a good idea to have a lot of exports and get rid of most if not all of my useless crafts for other things? I know that imposts dont count to your overall fortress wealth so I thought that trading away too much would inherently cause less migrants. Do your exports still count toward migrants wanting to come?

 Would it be a good or bad idea to trade 90%+ of my crafts to trades for, say, all of their leather so I can start a leatherworking industry?

[forsaken1111]

Is it a good idea to have a lot of exports and get rid of most if not all of my useless crafts for other things? I know that imposts dont count to your overall fortress wealth so I thought that trading away too much would inherently cause less migrants. Do your exports still count toward migrants wanting to come?

 Would it be a good or bad idea to trade 90%+ of my crafts to trades for, say, all of their leather so I can start a leatherworking industry?

That's what I do. I essentially produce very few raw materials myself on my forts, but import every bit of cloth, dye, leather, gem, etc and use them to craft either useful things (bags, ropes) or trade goods which I then trade for useful things (more metal bars, leather, etc). Sometimes I subsist entirely off of food and booze from the caravans.

[Jim Groovester]

It's a very good idea. Crafts are useless to you anyway, so you might as well trade them away. You should trade for things that are useful, like wood, or things that you can turn into more crafts or decorate crafts with. So requesting all available gems for decorations is a good idea, and you can get tons of leather from the caravan, far more than if you set up a breeding program for that purpose.

Crafts are just a step in the chain to get rid of useless junk anyway, and caravans are an important step in that process.

[madjoe5]

It's a very good idea. Crafts are useless to you anyway, so you might as well trade them away. You should trade for things that are useful, like wood, or things that you can turn into more crafts or decorate crafts with. So requesting all available gems for decorations is a good idea, and you can get tons of leather from the caravan, far more than if you set up a breeding program for that purpose.

Crafts are just a step in the chain to get rid of useless junk anyway, and caravans are an important step in that process.

Okay, but will my crafts still be counted toward my total wealth? Will trading them away have a negative affect toward my migrant waves?

[Jim Groovester]

I think it still counts. I'm not sure, since I've never paid attention if the wealth drops.

If your wealth drops, it would still be counted under wealth exported, so it keeps track of it either way.

EDIT: Don't worry about your migrant waves. If you build it, they will come, even if it is a hellhole.

[RAM]

Caravans are a great way to gain stuff that is difficult to produce locally, so I try to trade off as much as possible to encourage them to bring more caravans next time. But I don't care much for fortress wealth or immigrants, so this might not work so well for you...

[madjoe5]

Okay so i got a caravan of dwarves and hobgoblins so Im going to trade all of my crafts to the dwarves (which my liaison requested for coincidentally) and get the animals, leather and wood I requested a year ago. The hobgoblins (no liaison) only have meat and leather so I will take some of that too.

[forsaken1111]

It's a very good idea. Crafts are useless to you anyway, so you might as well trade them away. You should trade for things that are useful, like wood, or things that you can turn into more crafts or decorate crafts with. So requesting all available gems for decorations is a good idea, and you can get tons of leather from the caravan, far more than if you set up a breeding program for that purpose.

Crafts are just a step in the chain to get rid of useless junk anyway, and caravans are an important step in that process.

Okay, but will my crafts still be counted toward my total wealth? Will trading them away have a negative affect toward my migrant waves?

Items you trade away count as exported wealth and will no longer count towards total fortress wealth. It will likely have an impact on your migrant swarms, but it shouldn't be a big deal. Migrants will come either way, you may just get less or more of them. The quality of the migrants isn't dependent on your wealth, only the number. Getting too many migrants too early can be bad anyway, as you may not be able to feed or employ them. You don't want a bunch of useless peasants sitting around building relationships because if two or three die the other 23 will suddenly tantrum and destroy your fortress.

[Megaman]

if you trade for useful things at a reasonable loss wealth wise it won't make much impact, and if you keep expanding your fortress more immigrant will come, so always keep some masons on duty.

[Albedo]

Will trading them away have a negative affect toward my migrant waves?

If you're worried, then you simply aren't producing as much as you should be.  Created wealth can easily be massive compared to the amount you need to trade to a caravan.

Trade away your low-quality stone furniture (doors, chairs, tables), mechanisms, prepared food - anything "spare" that is just sitting around anyway, and any other stuff you don't need - like "narrow" clothing.

You could decorate it (so it becomes "yours") and put it all somewhere and, yes, it would all add up - but get the loot you need from the caravan first.

[Qjet]

when you trade you also receive, technically a trading will cost you wealth, but not MUCH wealth since you get something back for it. just build a quarter boxs of cheap trinkets and you will probably be back to where you were (unless they came in with 5 wagons loaded with 100K worth of goods and you traded for all of it.) Also when you trade you gain materials that you need, that you can use to make more wealth, I would argue that you get less immigrants by not trading.

[Albedo]

but not MUCH wealth since you get something back for it.

No, actually, you don't.

It's not "stuff" your after, not "wealth", but "Created Wealth" (or "Exported Wealth", but that's a diff sub-topic).

Items you trade for, or items you steal or anything scavenged off of dead gobbos, add nothing to Created Wealth - because you didn't "create" them.  You have to decorate or dye or otherwise improve them to make them "yours" (and remove the parentheses around them.)

[Qjet]

Well yah, i mean the stuff you get back you use in industry, which gives you more wealth. Moreso then keeping everything. Short term loss for long term gain.

[Albedo]

Investment, exactly.