Hope you guys don't mind me asking a question or two more. I think I've a pretty good grasp on most game concepts by now (with the exception of the catholic church and hre stuff), just need a bit more advice of matters economic.
So I've been trying to figure out what is factoring in my empire's economy, wich is apparently the second strongest in the world (castile is first methinks), and how adding buildings will help me out.
First how does production and trade relate? If I increase my production, I increase my trade value in the trade node with it? But I also gain money from production alone, regardless of trade power I may or may not have in that node? If I increase my production, I take it it's best I ensure a high trade power in that node to doubly benefit?
Secondly, how does supply and demand work? I see they are both percentages, common sense would suggest increasing production would increase supply globally, but what factors into demand? I see that, for instance, the value on sugar has decreased pretty sharply compared to previous centuries, probably because of my and castile's colonization, will the value continue to drop if I ramp up production? Is it worth it at all to invest in my production capacity, or does that depend on global demand?
Thirdly, how do I counteract a merchant pulling trade value? If I understand correctly the power of the pull depends on the power in the trade node being pulled to, but what determines how much value gets pulled? Is it a factor of the trade power of the node being pulled to to the power of the merchant's nation in that trade node? Can I reduce the amount being pulled away from a node by another merchant by increasing my trade power there?
Lastly is there any benefit at all to increasing trade power in a node where I soly controle provinces? Does it help a merchant who is collecting from trade there, or is there really no point to it.
If you would like an idea of my economic situation and what considerations I'm making here's an overview: I controle all pronvinces in the mexico node, wich has a modest trade value (and no trade node to pull from, sadly) and is getting most its income from gold mines. I have a pretty strong influence in Panama (the inca trade power is laughable), sitting at about 55% in power and a pretty good value. I have close to no influence in the carribean, where castile and portugal are dominant. The two are pulling a large amount of trade value from panama to carribeans,and from there to southern europe. I would like to increase my production in panama but not before I stop more then half the value from leaving the node and flowing to europe. Also, if I were to hypothetically gain a strong influence in the carribean, would I benefit from placing my capital there and pulling trade value to there from my other regions?
Also on another note, what determines the size of a province's population? From what I gather the size of a province effects the amount of tax I get from it? Does the size of a province increase over time, if so what factors into this? Or is it just a static vale for each province? I have one province that is fantastically large (taxes for like 13), and I'm curious how it got like that.