Victoria 3: How to Trade and Start a New Trade Route

Victoria 3 is a serious game. You can either raise a new nation by taking the politics, trade and diplomacy route, or you can be your own evil dictator and declare war like there is no tomorrow. However, if you wish to succeed in this game (or in life), you would want some allies. More specifically, you would want to trade with those allies. And don’t worry, here you will find how to trade and start new trade routes in Victoria 3.

How to Trade in Victoria 3

First, a couple of things you will want to know before you can start trading. If you are either an isolationist nation, a puppet nation, or a junior member of a customs union, sorry, but trade will be impossible for you (oh yes, this game hits very close to home). Second, you will want to build ports and construction sites at the beginning of the game. Ports to increase trading, construction sites to increase the production of a certain resource. With that being said, trading in Victoria 3 is quite simple, but like with any other games of this genre, you need to be strategic.

The first and easiest option for trading is to, you know, just trade. The first thing you want to do is to click on the green Trade Lens at the bottom of the screen. You will see a couple of tabs labeled “export” and “import” and every resource available for trade will be there. But hey, don’t go crazy. You have to be strategic and know what your nation needs. Go to the market display to show what resource is in demand right now. And voilà, you have successfully (and responsibly) traded for the first time.

How to Start New Trade Routes

The second option for trading is to start new trade routes. It is quite simple. Just open your Market tab, click on your Trade Market tab and set up a New Import Route or New Export Route. Choose the resource you need and there you go! You just set up a new active trade route.

Just like before, be wary of what you need, but also who you trade with. You could be embargoed by a certain nation that hates your guts and your trading capabilities will be affected. Also, trading can cost bureaucracy points, which in turn could impact negatively on your taxation and can cost you a lot of money (like I said before, this game is realistic). Setting up trade deals and building government administration buildings will mitigate and prevent this.

With that being said, you’re good to go. Happy trading!

Paradox Interactive’s Victoria 3 is available now on Windows, macOS and Linux systems (through Steam). If you like our Victoria 3 content, you can check out What is a Customs Union in Victoria 3 and Is Victoria 3 on Game Pass?.