User Guide

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cost of an item, not that each item will become
10% more expensive each successive year.
Your inflation amount will change as a result of
a number of things:
• Inflation increases very slowly for every
ducat that is minted by the current set-
ting of your treasury investment slider.
The more gold you mint, the more rapidly
your inflation value will rise, and the more
expensive many of your purchases and in-
vestments will become. A small amount
of inflation is essentially unavoidable, but
you should avoid using more drastic set-
tings except in case of emergency, and you
should try to limit this to periods with a
very short duration.
• Owning a province with gold as its trade
good causes a slight monthly increase to
your inflation value. The amount of the
increase depends on your country's total
income. If the gold income is small when
compared to the country's income from
other provinces, the inflation value in-
crease will be almost negligible. If the gold
income is a significant portion of your in-
come then the rate of increase could soar to
almost unbearable levels.
• Each "Tax Assessor" province improve
-
ment that you build will reduce the rate
that the inflation value increases in your
country. If you have a sufficient number of
these they can even cause the country's in-
flation value to slowly decrease.
• Similarly, the "National Banking" national
idea will reduce the rate that the inflation
value increases or could cause it to de-
crease.
• There are also a handful of random and
historic events that can alter your inflation
value, either upwards or downwards.
The inflation value is applied to all province
improvement costs, all armed forces recruit-
ment costs, all merchant placement and mis-
sionary costs, the cost to establish or expand
a colony, and to the total investment cost re-
quired to research each new technology. It is a
very good policy to keep your inflation value
as low as possible and to allow only a minimal
rate of increase unless there is a very compel-
ling reason to do otherwise.
Loans
There may be times of extreme emergency
where your country’s survival will depend
on being able to raise a very large amount of
cash in a very short period of time. You can, if
necessary, elect to take a loan. You may also
be forced to take a loan if you are running a
monthly budget deficit and lack the funds in
your national treasury to cover the shortfall.
This occurs automatically, although you will
receive a warning when your treasury is very
low and you are running a deficit, as well as
a message notification when the forced loan is
actually taken.
To take a loan voluntarily, click the “take
loan” button located below the budget summa-
ry scroll. At the beginning of the game, each
loan will be in the amount of 200 ducats, but
this can increase to larger sums later in the
game. A loan must be repaid in full exactly 5
years from the date that it is taken. During this
60-month period you will be required to pay
a monthly interest charge which is shown as
a fixed expense on the budget summary scroll.
This interest payment does not reduce the prin-
cipal amount owing, so a loan of 200 ducats
will incur monthly interest charges for 5 years,
and the full 200 ducats will be payable when
the loan comes due.
An alert will be displayed at the top of your
screen approximately three months prior to the
date that the loan must be repaid. Clicking
on it will take you to a page in your country’s
ledger that shows the amount of the loan and
the date that it is due. If you lack the necessary
funds in your treasury to repay a loan when it
is due, you will be forced to take an additional
loan to cover this and you will be notified of
this by the on-screen message. Unsurprisingly,
lenders consider this to be a much higher-risk
offering and will demand an additional 3%