Getting Enough Textiles to Build Merchant Ships

[gottagofish]

A little help please (or I will go into a rant). I play against the AI. I like to play the other nations (rather than France all the time). I started a new 1805 game as Turkey (talk about some one-sided rules, bet the AI isn't limited by them). After a couple of years I lost the merchant ships to war. So, I decide to build another one. Well I thought I would build another one. After a few months when I couldn't get textiles high enough and the frustration mounted, I switched every province to producing textiles and food. I traded away everything I made to add textiles. No matter, they were always eatten up by the people before I could get enough stockpiled. This seems really really really stupid to me(or is it just me?).

[06 Maestro]

Hi M. J.

Have you checked out the economics guide? After I read that I was easily able to double (or more) production.

Turkey has a tough time in almost every category-except textiles. You should have those coming out of your ears. If you already have the provinces optimized for there specialty production items, then look at your tax rate and national will as areas where you can get bonus production. I wouldn't mess with the feudal level settings though. It takes a year, under good conditions, to recover lost national will due to dropping one feudal level.

The economic guide was provided with the last patch, or you can find it in this forum-excellent material.

[Harvey Birdman]

What's your unit cost increase. With zero uci a merchant cost 100 textiles. With a 100 uci a merchant costs 200 textiles. Since textiles start getting consumed by your people if it goes above 100. It probably explains why you can't build merchants even though your maxing textile production. I've had a uci so high all I could buy were heavey art and heavey cav. 20 and 50 textiles respectively with zero uci,

7.7 Unit Cost Increase and Additional Parameters
A few more parameters can affect economic behavior. These are found on the Economy Advisor screen, and are explained in detail in the Economic Advisor chapter.
7.7.1 Unit Cost Increase (UCI)
Nations also experience economic inefficiency based on the purchases they make. Each nation has its own UCI factor: for every UCI factor a nation spends, the monetary cost of units increases by 1%. Unit Cost Increase (UCI) decreases automatically by a total amount of 1% a year. UCI effects are always included in the current price of units and developments. A nation’s UCI can be found at the bottom of the main screen, and on the Economy advisor screen (along with the nation’s UCI factor). Nations may begin scenarios with a pre-determined level of UCI. UCI is meant to represent the affects of inflation, scarcity, war-weariness, and so forth.

[gottagofish]

You are correct, I should have added that the UCI was 60%.  So, at 160 textiles I am unable to hold enough textiles to add a merchant.  I still think the interaction is really really really stupid.  Make it expensive, yes, but not make it impossible.