How does election rig and trade route work exactly?

[noontide]

Can someone give me a quick explanation or point me to an article? In my latest Immortal game, I kept 8 trade routes late game, but the gold income swing from 50 to 400 at various turns, even though I didn't do anything to change it.

Also, I have Alexander in the game, who holds 7 city states at influence over 300, so I decided to go to war with him. After I nearly wiped him out I reached peace agreement with him, and a few turns after that his influence over the city states suddenly dropped to 0. Why is that?

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

You're not the only one that has trade routes, other AI sends their routes as well.

How do you know his influence dropped to 0? There's no knowing that. The tooltip only says the difference between you and their levels (i.e if you have 59 and they have 61 it will say you need 2 more influence points in order to surpass him as City State ally.

 

[noontide]

You're not the only one that has trade routes, other AI sends their routes as well.

How do you know his influence dropped to 0? There's no knowing that. The tooltip only says the difference between you and their levels (i.e if you have 59 and they have 61 it will say you need 2 more influence points in order to surpass him as City State ally.

Well maybe not dropping to 0, but the previous turn I need 250+ influence to flip it, the next turn, it becomes ally to no one.

How do other trade routes affect the production of mine?