1. Utilize “Economy of Scale”
“Economy of Scale” in Victoria 3 is the bonus to Throughput (efficiency of turning Input Goods into Output Goods) based on building level. For example, when starting as Sweden the initial Logging Camps in Svealand are Level 8 and provide an additional 7% Throughput. This indicates that you should always try to concentrate production buildings in a single state when possible and permitted by population demand.
2. Freely import necessities
Providing your population with a steady flow of low-cost staple goods will be important to improving the Standard of Living. Increasing the Standard of Living will affect population growth as well as reduce the number of people becoming Radical. Additional trade routes to importing some of these necessities may help alleviate any crucial shortages you may have. However, some states will have bonuses for the production of some staple goods and you should always investigate if it would be better to build your own production industries instead.
3. Build Construction Offices Early
Many nations will start with a healthy money balance when you start the game – utilize that to build construction offices early on. In Victoria 3, there is a Credit system if you go into debt where you have some leeway for spending money on investing in your economy. As an example, Sweden starts with 2.22M credit that you can tap into if necessary prior to going into Default (which pauses all construction and negatively impacts Throughput). Building construction offices early will help kickstart your industries which will almost always pay itself off.
4. Avoid too many Construction Offices
Unfortunately, each construction office will increase your National Expenses quite significantly (to the tune of up to 5-6K/week). Early on it is definitely a good idea to invest in more construction offices (as mentioned above), however too many will cripple your economy in the long run. Once you are running a significant deficit, consider dismantling some offices to create a better weekly cash balance.
5. Use negative productivity Trade Routes
Frequently you may encounter scenarios where your production lines are running a shortage of specific Input Goods (often things like Tools or Iron etc.). Don’t be afraid to utilize trade routes to bring in the necessary goods to bring down the price. This allows the production buildings to run more cost-efficiently and sustain themselves without requiring subsidizing.
6. Build the industries regardless of Predicted Earnings
One mistake that is often made early on is that you may avoid all the buildings that tell you that you will lose money. For some reason, it gives you a negative, but for most resource/agriculture/manufacturing type buildings it will end up as a positive. Instead, base your decision to construct a certain building on what is most needed.
Keep in mind that you are building to benefit your entire Nation rather than individual building productivity. For each Logging Camp or Iron Mine that you build, you then reduce the cost of Input Goods for multiple other industries – which will then increase the overall profitability of your country.
7. Increase consumption tax
Increasing consumption tax on certain goods will be an efficient way to bankroll more Construction Offices or enable you to climb out of a severe deficit. As an example, an additional consumption tax on Services in Sweden would have generated approximately 3.83K revenue per week while only minimally impacting the Standard of Living.
8. Focus on the Resource/Agriculture industry early on
Creating a strong Resource/Agriculture industry early on will enable you to have consistent access to low-cost Input Goods for your other industries later on in the game as well as provide your population with a sustainable boost to their Standard of Living. Pay special attention to which buildings already exist in which states to maximize Economy of Scale as well as efficient boosting through using Decrees.
9. Specialize state production
As mentioned above, specific states will have boosts to certain industries – use that knowledge to maximize where to construct more buildings. It is also a good idea to “specialize” a state in a specific type of industry such as Agriculture vs. Resource vs. Manufacturing. This is more important in the early game when the limiting factor is more related to Construction Offices than the employable population. However, as your industry develops you may end up building other industries in your “specialized” states simply due to workforce limitations.
10. Use Decrees in specialized states
As mentioned above, when you specialize a state in a specific industry you can then utilize Decrees to maximize output. This will allow you to really maximize how much money you can make from each individual building that you construct. Combining Economy of Scale with this will set you on your way to optimizing your industry.
11. Build ports and clippers for convoys
Once you reach a certain stage in the game, you may find yourself requiring additional Convoys to sustain your trade routes. To do this, you will have to build additional Ports and either build or import Clippers.
