[2023] Trade anomalies

Androbey said: The trade law mechanics I understand. The issue that I have is that if a country is Importing a commodity to reduce a production malus. Why would they export that same commodity? I would think that the only commodities that you would export are the ones that you have a surplus, (that is the ones you have more than you need for production efficiency).

It's one of the game's weird, but I consider necessary, abstractions.

"Exports" aren't truly exports in the Vic3 sense of the word.

It's clear to me that the various trade laws that reduce outgoing resources aren't just export controls but include a whole list of economic stuff like price supports, subsidies, rationing, and production quotas. The end result is that the government can just grab more resources to use in projects. The consequences are a drag on the economy in the form of lower bonuses to factory output and research.

As an example, when you slap a lower trade law on the country, you are, say, Germany ordering coal mines to increase their output (via quotas and price mechanisms and other things) and sell to the government at a favorable rate. Those mines may not have tapped their output otherwise due to lack of demand and simply run at a lower rate. (I'm thinking of Tooze's Wages of Destruction here regarding the importance of coal in Germany's economy.) The more you "restrict trade" the more your government is just outright dictating what resources your country gives up for government use.

Where the abstraction falls down a bit is that domestic demand can't stimulate increase in output naturally. There is no way in HOI4 for the government to "buy" resources from itself like other countries can. As a result, you either have access to 100 steel at Export focus or 150 steel at limited exports, but you can't run Export focus and just spend 6-7 CIC to buy up another 50 steel from yourself. If you want that steel, you have to clamp down on the whole economy and "pay" in the form of penalties to output.

I consider the abstraction still necessary to the game because it somewhat encourages trade offs with various economic policies and gives an edge to whoever controls the ocean. With Britain and the US controlling the ocean, the Allies can focus on selling back and forth to each other.

It also helps simulate the fact that not all oil is the same as other oil (and steel, tungsten, chromium, and aluminum all come in different types). The Soviets might be buying oil from the US, but the British might be buying Soviet oil. Stupid? Not if US oil is light sweet crude being turned into aviation fuel and Soviet oil is heavier stuff useful for fueling ships. The game doesn't have the difference, but if countries are buying oil from each other, it kind of simulates those differences.