Trade route mechanics: incoming trade routes?

[muxec]

What's the limit on number of incoming trade routes(the ones that give money to the other cities)? Is it the same as the number of outgoing routes? Do both incoming and outgoing routes decrease the espionage costs?

 

[ThrustVectoring]

I remember some firsthand info from when I was messing around with great lighthouse + cothon etc, nothing concrete though, but I didn't fill up on outgoing foreign trade routes even though they would have given me more money than domestic ones.

 

[muxec]

If I Rexed with GLH and researched currency is it worth it to trade this tech to my overseas trade partners to improve my profits?

 

[Ghpstage]

"What's the limit on number of incoming trade routes(the ones that give money to the other cities)? Is it the same as the number of outgoing routes? Do both incoming and outgoing routes decrease the espionage costs?"

"If I Rexed with GLH and researched currency is it worth it to trade this tech to my overseas trade partners to improve my profits?"

The routes you profit from (outgoing) are entirely separate from AIs trade routes or even trade techs. In your entire empire, you can only have one route in just one city to a particular foreign city.
If for example, Madrid has a foreign route to London int its trade route box on the city screen, it doesn't mean that London necessarily has a trade route back.

The AI doesn't need to have sailing for you to profit from coastal routes, they however will not be able to form a route back (so you gain most here), the same applies to Oceans and Astronomy. This also means that trading currency to AIs will not increase your profits.


For increasing the amount of trade routes you get from AI cities, you must explore routes to the AI cities (obviously with OB agreement), the more cities and open borders you can find, the bigger the payoff. If you find new cities to trade with and your doesn't start rising, you probably need new cities for more trade routes


For domestic routes however, your cities can form as many routes with each other as they need to use up all available routes, but only one route to a specific city can be made from a specific city i.e. London can only have 1 route to Hastings (obvious I know ), but hastings can have a route to London, and both can have a route to York, which can in turn have a route to both London and Hastings .
Cities on a landmass (even a 1 tile island counts) that isn't the one your capital is on,
will gain a big bonus for, all your cities.
If you have 5 cities on a continent all with 1 (total 5), and you settle 1 overseas, then the new city will increase the 5 trade to 12 in total (6th route made, and value all doubled)

Domestic trade will almost certainly make up a large percentage of your trade income, and knowing how to boost it is very useful.

On the espionage question however, I believe its cities you have a trade route to, as in a route you can see in one of your city screens

 

[peapd]

This question got me wondering...

I rarely use Privateers, but if you were, would it be useful to gift Astronomy to an AI in order to increase their trade routes, allowing your Privateers to steal more from them?


Not that this is a good idea, just curious.