EU3 inflation problem

[Racsoviale]

Hi all

recently I have really gotten into Europa Universalis 3(no expansion yet sadly) and I seem to be having quite a good grasp on many of the details. I am still a noob though but I feel I have a quite good grasp on the core aspects of the game(although my imperialistic ambitions seem to plunge my badboy points through the roof fairly quickly through conquest)

In a recent game as Denmark(mostly so I had an excuse to kick swedish ***) I managed to carve quite an enormous empire: northern germany, sweden(offcoarse), all of south america(except for argentina) and most of the carribean. I am allied with Austria(which compromise the rest of germany, hungary and lots of Poland), France(which is huge as usual) and England - So basically im allied with the 3 biggest baddest powers in europe which is nice but a little unsettling, since sooner or later one of them is going to declare on another one and a monumental world war is gonna erupt(im also looking forward to that but to decide which one to side with is gonna take days to decide)

Well enough babbling about nonsense.

my question is about inflation, I believe my inflation i hovering around the 30% which is quite a lot and the only reason I think I am not tanking my economy is because of all the rich colonies I am holding in the americas.

How do you lower your inflation?

I suppose it is possible since I can get a National Idea that lowers it(so it is not like civ where there is nothing to do) but I was thinking there might be other ways to lower it.

I also think it(the high inflation) is the main reason I am so far behind in tech, although all my sliders are locked in zero, except for stability and government in order to get a new National Idea(although it is gonna take ages) again I believe I am in a downwards going spiral, since inflation is eating so much of my budget, which makes me raise the income slider even more, which makes progress take even longer, making the inflation rise even more, which makes me.....well you get the idea.


sorry about the long post

 

[Captain2]

you have to reduce your minting until inflation goes into the negative, sometimes this would leave you in worse shape than the reduction in inflation would and sometimes you're capable of handling such a loss of income.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Also try sending more merchants in the mean time, to profit without minting.

I find Merchants much more efficient than minting anyway.

 

[Serutan]

As well as what Captain said about minting, you (IIRC) will also eventually get both an Idea and
a building (Tax collector?) that help out with inflation.

 

[Dachs]

And keep your eye out for Masters of Mint in the advisor screen. Having one of those for three or four decades can cut your inflation immensely.

 

[Racsoviale]

thx all.

So basically my inflation goes down(over time) if I keep a negative income in. And simply try and survive a year on the annual budget?

 

[PhroX]

thx all.

So basically my inflation goes down(over time) if I keep a negative income in. And simply try and survive a year on the annual budget?

Not necessarily a negative income. Inflation is based on the minting slider at the the bottom of the income sliders. Without any other modifiers, setting minting to zero prevents inflation from increasing but wont actually decrease it. You need to keep the slider low and have modifiers (National Bank, Tax Assessors, Master of Mint, Centralisation etc.) to lower it. If you get a lot of modifiers, you can often be minting quite a lot and still be decreasing inflation.

 

[germanicus12]

I assume you have the trade center in South America, if a war does come, pick the side who has the most trade centers, because once you choose one side, the other will immediately cancel your trade access and you will lose money. Look at who has Pensacola... it would be either France or England and side with them, that center is one of the wealthiest centers in the New World, rivaling your South American trade center. (If you don't have the South American Trade Center, then depending how historical it is, Spain or England, possibly France would have it.)

Just side with the one who has the most trade centers or you would be forced to go far and wide to infiltrate a new trade center just to keep your economy afloat.

 

[Racsoviale]

thx for more good replies

Phrox: thank you for breaking it down a bit more, I think a major problem I am facing is that I have my decentralisation maxed out because of the starting slider, and unfortunate events which have forced me to go further towards decentralisation(the stability loss would be too much if I took the other option)
I will work on getting it towards centralisation from now on.

Germanicus12: unfortunately the trade center in South America is one of the few provinces I dont own. It is a thorn in my side because of the unappealing blue(french) blob in my rightful territory.

 

[PhroX]

Phrox: thank you for breaking it down a bit more, I think a major problem I am facing is that I have my decentralisation maxed out because of the starting slider, and unfortunate events which have forced me to go further towards decentralisation(the stability loss would be too much if I took the other option)
I will work on getting it towards centralisation from now on.

Centralisation isn't a massive effect on inflation, even maxed it's only something like -0.05. That said, the other benefits are excellent, so you should definately look to move the slider left. In most situations, that and Free Subjects (for cheap research) are the two slider settings you want to get maxed (at least to you government limits, maybe beyond) ASAP.

It sounds like your some way into the game, so pushing Gov. Tech up to the point where you can get Tax Assessors as well as taking National Bank should probably be your priorities.

Just noticed something, you say you're playing without any expansions, so take anything I'm saying with a pinch of salt, as I've only ever played IN

 

[Yeekim]

Hi all

recently I have really gotten into Europa Universalis 3(no expansion yet sadly)

Try to change this as sure as possible. Unlike with many other games, expansions improve EU3 gameplay massively.
And then do try out Magna Mundi mod.

 

[Racsoviale]

A little thread revival, but I wanted to let you guys now that after some time off from EU3 I have gotten back into it, and actually managed to survive my economy problems. I started a new game as brandenburg and proceeded to annex german minors as random wars began, I have become quite the opportunistic pariah state, but i managed to eventually from germany I now have a huge France on the west, and an unchecked huge Ottoman empire on my east(poland got partitioned between me and the ottomans) and a somewhat strong but incapacitated Austria to my south.

In this game, my main objective was to have a manageable economy and having as much control over the inflation rate as possible, and I am glad to tell you guys that I have gotten it. My inflation rate never exceeded 4% and that was only for short runs in order to afford a quick war. Otherwise I only been spending the money I could afford during the yearly census taxes(it did take a while before the economy got corrected during the first ten years, mainly because of all the non core provinces I got)
What surprised me even more was how useless merchants can be when you are a non trading warmonger - after a while i stopped sending merchants, since they never stayed long enough for me to get anything out of them, and could use the money on more soldiers instead. I had a bad reputation and no national trade ideas, and had focused on land instead of naval, but economically I actually think it was a wiser choice since my chances of staying in a CoT was so small anyway.

so thanks guys for all the tips

It struck me during the game that understanding of the economics(especially the difference between yearly and monthly tax) and the mechanics of inflation is the key to understanding this game.