Trade Infrastructure
Markets & Liquidity
Markets let the economy rebalance resources, but price, spread, capacity, and recovery prevent instant or unlimited conversion. Economic infrastructure determines how much can be traded well.
Prices react to trade
Capacity limits volume
Infrastructure restores liquidity
01
How it works
- Buying and selling moves market conditions. Large trades can consume favorable volume and receive progressively less attractive execution.
- Market capacity is supplied by Headquarters, Starports, trade buildings, diplomacy, and active Trade Convoys. Recovery replenishes usable volume over time.
- Markets move resources between needs; they do not create a sustainable substitute for production when an empire has a structural deficit.
02
Command advice
- Use markets to bridge timing gaps and exploit surpluses, not to finance an indefinitely broken production chain.
- Add Starports and convoys before planning repeated high-volume trades.
- Trade early enough that thin capacity and adverse price movement do not block an emergency purchase.