This article may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game. It was last updated for 1. Economics in EU4 revolves around the earning and expenditure of ducats , the game's international currency.

The national and international economy underpin almost every function of a country, and often fuels international diplomacy. Understanding and developing a country's economy yields better national finances, allowing the country to boost its standing in the world and further grow at a faster pace. The Economy panel in the Country interface displays a summary of the player's finances and provides a few important actions relating to it such as Loans and Reduce Inflation.

The total amount of ducats in a country's treasury is updated at the beginning of every month. The amount by which this changes is the total income minus the expenditure for the previous month. The various factors which affect these amounts are listed below. In addition, various events may add or take away from the treasury. Aside from the continuing incomes and expenses mentioned below, ducats may also be gained or spent as one-time earnings or payments in the following ways:.

Income is the sum of all money gained monthly. Unlike in EU3, all income is liquid and does not need to be minted. The continuous sources of income that a country has is listed in the "Income" column, which is on the left side of the Economy panel see right. This panel lists both the total amount from each source and that source's bonus if any.

Hovering over the source or bonus shows a tooltip with detailed information, such as modifiers or a breakdown of income by province.

The maximum amount of ducats a country can have in its treasury is 1 million. However, this number is considered to be difficult to reach without using console commands or mods. Tax comes directly from the population of a province, and produces a relatively dependable baseline income.

Each province has a base tax which may be increased by spending administrative power , and a tax income efficiency.

The yearly province tax amount is the multiple of the two amounts. There is also a National Tax Income , that is calculated at a countrywide level. Various tax modifiers exist that may change this amount. Production is a measure of the amount of income generated in a province by local producers of its trade good. Unlike in EU3, production income is added directly to the state's income each month. This amount depends on the good's prices , the province's base production, and the production efficiency among other modifiers.

The trade value produced by each province flows into the trade network, where it is eventually collected by capitals and merchants and converted into ducats.

Economy - Europa Universalis 4 Wiki

Careful management of trade can make it the most powerful source of income by far. Gold is a special "trade" good. Gold does not produce any trade value; instead, it is converted directly into ducats.

Gold production income is 40 ducats per year per unit produced, with the exception of unreformed New World natives, who only receive 1 ducat per year per unit produced. Once the counter is full, the colony will send a treasure fleet. The treasure fleet travels downstream along the trade routes , passing each node between the colonial nation and its overlord's trade capital.

If there are privateers present in these nodes, they will steal a share of the gold corresponding to their power in the node. At the end of the journey, any money that remains is given to the overlord nation, which will suffer inflation similar to that gained from gold mines. In these cases, the colonial nation will simply keep the gold for themselves, paying just the usual amount in tariffs.

Colonial nations are required to transfer a part of their total income, called tariffs, to their overlord. The tariffs can be set for each colonial nation by the overlord in the Subjects interface or may change through events.

Higher tariffs increase the level of Liberty desire in the colonial nation. Vassals are required to pay a fee to their overlords.

The basis for calculating this fee is the tax income of the vassal. Signing a fleet basing agreement with another country will cost an amount equal to 0.

The AI never asks to access ports of the player, and the player can never offer it there is a "strategic interests" modifier. Whether the province is cored or not has no effect on the cost of fleet basing rights. Countries that have a strategic interest in another country may grant subsidies to that country, which is given in the form of a certain amount of the benefactor's monthly income each month for a certain number of years. The Spoils of War section includes income gained from military and wartime actions.

If the Mare Nostrum DLC is enabled, it is possible to offer a country Condottieri , which are armies rented out for money. A country's expenses, i. This column lists two types of expenses:.

Advisors have a base monthly salary equal to the square of their skill level, increased by 0. Hovering over this in the Expenses column shows a tooltip that lists other modifiers, including Inflation. States require continuous monetary upkeep, depending on the development of the provinces, the distance to the capital and further modifiers.

Interest must be paid on loans. Further information is given in the Loans section below. Hovering over Diplomatic Expenses shows a tooltip with a more detailed breakdown of a country's diplomatic expenses see right.

These are as follows:. This shows the amount spent monthly to maintain the forts present in a country. The amount spent on each fort depends on its fort level. Doing so will inhibits the forts upkeep of army tradition and remove the defenders making it easy to conquer in a war. Colonies require a monthly maintainenance while they grow until they become full cities.

The cost per year is:. The cost is further increased quadratically for each colony over the number of colonists the country has. Colonial maintenance can be reduced, but at the cost of colonial growth.

Provincial modifiers to colony growth are applied separately to this change. So, a tropical colony will shrink by settlers with zero maintenance due to the additional settlers provincial modifier.

Colonial maintenance also does not affect growth from colonist agents. Colonists cannot be sent while a country is bankrupt.

At the start, each active missionary costs 5 ducats per year at full funding. This base value changes over the years. Reducing missionary maintenance reduces missionary strength. A country can lower corruption by spending up to 0. Effective development is affected by autonomy. The total cost of rooting out corruption is calculated using the formula:. For the three-province country Andhra see right , the maximum cost to root out corruption can be calculated as follows:.

The calculations above mean that higher local autonomy will decrease the cost of lowering corruption. All modifiers to maintenance are added together and applied to this. Condottieri reinforcements and maintenance costs are applied even when maintenance slider is at zero. Maintenance costs increase over time as a country advances in technology. Maintenance costs will reduce when a regiment suffers casualties, but will increase due to an added cost for reinforcement.

Maintenance costs will also increase when a country exceeds its force limit. Fleet maintenance works the same as army maintenance but with certain exceptions:. Further differences, including those on how modifiers are applied, are listed on the Navy page.

Acquiring the National Bank idea in Economic Idea Group can trigger an event in which loans can be changed to grant money equal to 6 or 24 months' income. A loan may be taken at any time, although each loan taken increases inflation by 0. A loan may be paid back in full, plus the total remaining interest owed, at any time during the loan period. If a loan expires and the borrower cannot or chooses not to pay the principal, the loan will be extended for an additional 5 years at the current interest rate, and inflation will increase by an additional 0.

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The interest rate is influenced by:. The minimum interest rate that has to be paid is 0. Countries that have a strategic interest in another country's wars may grant loans to that country.

With Rights of Man active, rulers with the Indulgent trait will accept loans from Human Players if needed. If the borrower refuse to pay the principal when a loan expires, the lender gets a month CB "Cancelled Loan" against the borrower.

Debasing currency is a feature added in 1. Cannot be used if corruption is at If the combined monthly interest of loans exceeds a country's monthly income, the country will be forced to declare bankruptcy.

It is also possible for any country with at least one loan to deliberately declare bankruptcy. Entering bankruptcy reduces prestige by , reduces stability by 3 , reduces legitimacy to 0 , lowers republican tradition by 25 other government mechanics aren't affected , and reduces all monarch power to All of your mercenaries, advisers are also dismissed and all buildings and units under construction are cancelled.

Any coring or culture conversion in process is also cancelled. Going bankrupt destroys all buildings built in the last 5 years. Deliberately going bankrupt, though dangerous, can be a powerful tool for restoring the economy if managed carefully. Try to have truces lasting at least 5 years with as many dangerous neighbors as possible, so they can't attack during bankruptcy.

Before declaring bankruptcy, spend all monarch points on developing provinces or boosting stability, as they will all be lost otherwise. Ensure that no provinces are in the process of being cored. Colonies should be abandoned unless very close to completion. Rebels are more difficult to fight while bankrupt due to the penalties to army morale, but can be beaten with enough numbers. Since manpower gain is almost zero during bankruptcy, it may be necessary to re-hire mercenaries to fight them.

Get stability back up as soon as possible and also consider spending military points to raise legitimacy requires Rights of Man DLC. In economics, inflation is an increase in the price of goods over time. In gameplay terms, inflation makes all expenses cost more.

Contrary to real life, inflation in game does not mean constantly increasing prices, but rather a flat increase of the country's expenses. In real life certain incomes would increase with inflation as well.

This reflects that the in game "ducats" have a constant value over the course of centuries and serve as an absolute indicator of value. In the real history the value of gold was just as volatile as anything else. The in-game inflation simply represents the inflation over the time between collecting income and spending it, therefore representing that the income has lost value while it was sitting in the country's treasury.

These are all situations where the country's money supply is expanded. In economics, an expansion in the supply of money without corresponding economic growth causes a decrease in its value, i. Before the middle of the 20th century, and certainly during the period of EU4, currency was only considered money to the extent that it was either made of or backed by gold and silver, which is represented by gold in the game , which is why gold income a direct injection of pure money causes inflation.

If passive means are unavailable or insufficient, the Reduce Inflation button in the budget panel reduces inflation by Counter-intuitively, war taxes do not increase tax income.

They instead decrease maintenance and increase available mercenaries for 2 years [1] at the cost of 50 military power [1]. This bonus will end as soon as the nation is at peace. The bonus given are:. From Europa Universalis 4 Wiki. This section may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game. The last version it was verified as up to date for was 1. The following table may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game.

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