EU4 Best Trade Goods Guide

Europa Universalis 4 is an intensive game with too many resources to count. As you get luxury and trade goods, managing your finances can be one of the most frustrating aspects of this multi-century civilization experience. But, that doesn’t mean that this is an impossible formula to figure out! For pure currency value, there are some resources that you’re going to want to dig for every single time. If you want to know which resource in Europa Universalis 4 is the best trade good, you are going to want to read on!

The Best Trade Goods in EU4

Thanks to the work of u/Comrade_Ibra on reddit, we now know that the best trade goods in EU4 are Cloves, Coal, Cocoa, Paper, and Silk. Cloves dominate the trade by far, and for the longest time, with a consistent value of 8 ducats over the course of an EU4 game. Coal is worth the most, though, at 10 ducats when discoverable in 1700. Then, Cocoa, Paper, and Silk bring up the back, floating between 4 and 5 ducats over their lifespan.

While these five resources are the best for trade in a standard game of EU4, they aren’t the end-all be-all. You can get away with selling Sugar, Ivory, and Silk while staying in the 4 ducat range. 

To say Cloves are the best trade good is like saying gold is expensive. Cloves are designed to be traded, being made at a Trade Station. If your goal is to generate Ducats via worldwide trade, you will be making this station at some point. However, Cloves vastly outperform the other trade station options in ducats per product. 

Coal does cost more, but it only comes into play during the late game of an EU4 game. You can’t get started on manufacturing coal until 1700. But… Make your play quick! It stays at this high price for a mere 50 years. Try to sell high to benefit from this impactful good!

These numbers are just the static bonuses, though. For events like the Province bonus, you might want to invest in Cloth. Or, for the trading in bonus, you might want Tropical Woods. Gems can be useful for administration of empires, and fetch a nice price early on.

The three worst trade goods are Wool, Fish, and Grain. These sell for nearly 2 ducats each at all points of the game. You should try to store these for events that may improve their prices, or use them to manufacture products that may up their innate value. Thankfully, these items are fairly common over the course of a map. If you have a plentiful amount of spaces, feel free to use them to generate some additional ducats. However, they are really not worth fully dedicating to without an abundance of the resource.