The caravan trade formula

[Tenochtitlan]

Anyone here know the caravan trade formula? ie how much trades and trades per turn will I get when I send a caravan to another city and on what factors does it vary? I know the farther it is, the more money it will get you, and whether or not it is on a different island? I also know that if it is a different civ that your trading you recieve much more. What about form of government?


What is the caravan trade formula?

 

[hydraulics]

What is the caravan trade formula?

There are two formulae.

Bonus money received for establishing the route:

Bonus=(dist+10)*(ta+tb)/24
with
dist=distance between cities in squares (diagonal squares count as approximately 1.5 squares)
ta=trade arrows in city a
tb=trade arrows in city b
Bonus=bonus*0.50 if cities are on the same continent
Bonus=bonus*0.50 if both cities are from the same civilization
Bonus=bonus*0.66 if you have developed railroad
Bonus=bonus*0.66 if you have developed flight


Ongoing trade arrows generated:

Trade=(ta+tb+4)/8
with
ta and tb as before (excluding arrows generated from trade routes)
Trade=trade/2 if both cities are from the same civilization

 

[Tenochtitlan]

Nice, thanks... Where did you find it?

 

[hydraulics]

Sid Meier's civilization, or Rome on 640K a day.

 

[Valen]

The technology "penalties" for railroad and flight only apply when both civilizations make those discoveries. If you trade with a civilization that has not yet discovered railroad, your caravans keep their full value even if you have future tech.

 

[GPR]

I find this:

The additional cash is equal to (Distance between the Cities + 10) * (Trade Arrows of the 2 Cities) / 24.
This windfall is halved if the cities are on the same continent or if they are the same civilization; the windfall is reduced by ⅓ if the player has railroads or if the player has flight.
(If all four conditions are true, the windfall is thus 1/9 of the basic formula.)
If a city has created four or more trade routes, only the three most lucrative are kept and added to its trade; others can provide the initial bonus, but will not affect the city's number of trade arrows.
Trade is not bilateral: the target city does not automatically receive a trade route with the caravan's home; it must create its own caravan to create a trade route in the other direction.

Caravan (Civ1)

Back to the list of units Caravans may ignore adjacent enemy units during movement. They have no maintenance cost and do not cause unhappiness when away from their home city under Republic and Democracy. Caravans can establish trade routes between cities that are at least 10 squares apart. They...

civilization.fandom.com

So far I have treated caravans neglectfully. I wonder if the equations include all arrows, ie also the black arrows of corruption. Probably so.

 

[Tancretus]

I find this:

Caravan (Civ1)

Back to the list of units Caravans may ignore adjacent enemy units during movement. They have no maintenance cost and do not cause unhappiness when away from their home city under Republic and Democracy. Caravans can establish trade routes between cities that are at least 10 squares apart. They...

civilization.fandom.com

So far I have treated caravans neglectfully. I wonder if the equations include all arrows, ie also the black arrows of corruption. Probably so.

You think that's bad?
Until I lurked here I didn't understand the correlation to Caravans to Research and never used them thinking the profits not worth the effort. WHOOPS.

As for losses to Corruption... I don't think so, but the smarter here may chime in.