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My question has nothing directly to do with actual gameplay. I remember a quote by Napoleon in which he refered to England as a "nation of shopkeepers". How might CoG reflect this abstractly in game terms? Could it perhaps mean that England allocated much of it's production to luxuries? Any thoughts? I know it's not an important question, but I'm always interested in how games I really like reflect certain historical details. Thank in advance

I think Napoleon meant to imply that England's interest was primarily economic, and that England could be defeated if he could make the economic costs of fighting the wars high enough.  Some historians argue that the invasion of Russia was undertaken because Russia was the biggest "hole" in Napoleon's Continental System.  There was some pressure on the British government by merchants who were being hurt by the Continental System to come to terms with France, but it's not clear that the Continental System ever would have forced Britain's surrender.  I remember one anecdote of a French officer who was ordered to purchase new uniforms but found that cloth was in such short supply in France, and in the end was forced to deal with smugglers who smuggled the fabric from England.

As a game mechanic, this is modeled by denying luxury items from the Continent to England via trade.  It definitely will hurt the British if you can do this systematically, and may cause them extra Glory from a very high National Morale, but it probably doesn't have much better of a chance than the actual Continental System of forcing a British surrender.