Trade
Trade is managed via the trade tab on the finance panel, where details of the current prices of all resources produced across your territory are displayed along with information about how these are exported to our trade partners - together with the profit made from exporting to each one. Also shown are the resources available to you, both those you have gained from your trade partners and those you are yet to acquire. Certain advanced units and buildings require access to these resources before they can be recruited or constructed. Excess resources that do not get exported to other clans are sold within your own lands at a lower price.
Click here to view a video tutorial about this subject.
Trade Posts
In Shogun 2 a trade post is the means through which you can obtain special resources from distant foreign powers who do not otherwise appear in the game. Trade posts are positioned out to sea away from the coastline of Japan. In order to begin this trade, build a trade ship and send it to a trade post icon by right-clicking on it. Trading commences when your trade vessel's flag flashes with the yellow coin graphic. If all resources have been exported the maximum value of the trade route will be shown.
Foreign Trade
Once a trading port has been constructed in Fall of the Samurai it can then be upgraded to one of three trading districts - one for each of the foreign powers active in Japan at this time. Foreign trading districts improve both trade income and local growth, increase modernisation, enable the recruitment of foreign troops, and provide a resource and clan-wide effect particular to the nation running them. Their presence will cause unrest in host provinces. Once three districts belonging to one nation have been constructed there is a chance that a military mission for that nation will be offered. Accepting it locks your clan into a military pact with the mission-giver, reducing the cost and time needed to recruit their troops and contributing to your clan's capacity for modernisation. This can only happen once, and it is not possible to enter pacts with more than one nation.
Foreign Trade Routes
Once trade with foreign powers has been undertaken in Fall of the Samurai a trade route to that nation will appear on the map. The route disappears off the map in the direction of actual routes of the time, indicated by an arrow-shaped golden node. It is not possible to click on or interact with the node; it does not work the same way as trade posts in Shogun 2.