Trade is the backbone of your empire in Anno 117: Pax Romana. With dozens of materials needed to push your settlements from tiny outposts to thriving Roman cities, you’ll quickly discover that you can’t produce everything on your own islands. Fertility limits, expansion costs, and resource shortages make trading essential—not optional.
Whether you’re working with AI neighbors or cooperating with other players, here’s how trading works and how to build up a reliable trade network.
How Trading Works in Anno 117
Currently, there exist two major trading systems:
- Active Trading: Direct trade routes you set up between islands.
- Passive Trading: Automatic buying/selling based on storage thresholds
Both systems work together in order to keep your stockpiles balanced and your economy running.
Active Trading Explained
Active trading will give you full control over what your ships deliver, where they deliver it, and which goods they bring back.
1. Improve Relations First
Before you can open trade routes with an AI player, you need a Trade Treaty. You can raise your relationship by:
- Completing their quests
- Sending gifts
- Fulfilling their island contracts
- With a signed treaty, the trade menu is unlocked.
2. Establish a Trade Route
To create a route:
- Open Trade Menu
- Assign one of your vessels
- Choose which goods to load and unload
- Select the islands concerned
It will move the ship automatically back and forth, completing the trade, as long as it can reach both ports.
3. Understanding Trade Values
Goods aren’t traded 1:1. Each item has a Denarii value, so your ship will load or unload based on its worth.
Example: If Dorian sells Marble and you want Olive Oil, then you can create a balanced route where the outgoing goods match the incoming value.
This lets you:
- Shifting extra stock
- Bring in resources your islands can’t produce
- Fill production gaps caused by fertility limitations
4. Protect Your Trade Ships
Your routes are vulnerable to:
- Pirates
- Hostile AI
- Player enemies
You can escort a trade ship simply by selecting a military vessel and right-clicking the vessel you’d like to protect. On long-term routes, this can save you from costly interruptions.
Passive Trading Explained
Passive trading is hands-off, steady, and extremely useful for income or resource stability.
How It Works:
- Open your Trading Post menu.
- Select any resource that your island stores.
Set one or both of these:
- Sell Order: Sell goods above a certain level of stock
- Buy Order: Purchase goods until you get to a minimum threshold.
Once set, allied traders with active treaties will automatically visit and buy or deliver what you need.
Example of Passive Trading
If your island has maximum sheep capacity:
- Put a minimum you are keeping in stock
- Set a higher limit where surplus is sold
- Neighboring traders will automatically collect your excess sheep and give you profit passively, without needing to manually micromanage.
- It works just the same for buying resources such as wood, clay, or raw materials you’re missing.
Improving Your Trade Network
If you want to build a trade-focused empire, several upgrades are worth rushing.
Key Research Upgrades for Trade
| Research | Tree | Effect |
| Depots | Economic | Adds a depot to increase island storage—more goods available for trade. |
| Trading Post Improvements | Economic | More ramps for carts + extra island storage; reduces congestion. |
| Pier-to-Pier Trading | Economic | Adds an extra trading post so several ships can trade at the same time. |
| Seaport Specification | Economic | Endgame upgrade: control which ships use specific posts, great for complex multi-island trade networks. |
| Repair Cranes | Military | Repairs damaged ships and keeps trade fleets operational. These upgrades make a big difference once your empire grows and goods start piling up, running thin. |
Choosing the Best Patron Deity for Traders
Your island’s patron god has the ability to grant several powerful bonuses. For a trade-heavy run, two stand out.
- Neptune Extra durability for newly constructed ships, Lower ship maintenance, Faster Garum production – great for early passive trading income.
- Mercury-Lugus improves passive trade effectiveness. Bonuses to harbors and trading posts. Excellent for empires that rely on complex trade networks. Switching between the two as your economy matures is a sound long-term strategy.
