Trade guide for Mount & Blade with Fire & Sword: Rough prices I used on my "Mount & Trade" videos of my let's play Mount & Blade with Fire & Sword. The threshold prices are not perfect, but they work fine: I made 50000 in an hour with trade-skill 3 on my level 2 character.
How to make money in Mount & Blade with Fire & Sword
You can make all the money you need from the battles, looting, selling the loot, and eventually the taxes when you get fiefs. However, trading is a good way to make money early on, to hire initial army and gear. And this guide should help you, if you've never done trading before.
Trading in Mount & Blade is simple, you buy low and sell high. The economy is dynamic, the prices change over time based on supply and demand. Different locations, the towns and the fortresses, produce and use different kind of goods.
Mount & Blade with Fire & Sword Trade Guide: Prices
Buy if you see a trade item for less than below.
Sell if you get a price higher than below.
You get the idea.
"BUY <" (and "B <") means "buy for less than"
"SELL >" (and "S >") means "sell for more than"
Use these as guideline to get started, not as strict rules. So feel free to pay a little more than in the list, and feel free to sell as long as you get more money than you paid for.
- IRON, SALT: BUY < 150, SELL > 250
- POWDER: B < 300, S > 500
- LINEN, CLOTH, WINE: B < 150, S > 200
- LEATHERWORK, BUTTER: B < 100, S >130
- POTTERY, MEAT, FISH: B < 40, S > 70
- SPICE: B < 600, S > 800
- OIL: B < 300, S > 400
- VELVET: B < 700, S > 900
Also note that you can at times find some goods at extremely low price and similarly, you can sometimes be able to sell the goods for much higher price than the threshold.
If you want to see how the prices work in action, check the videos below (2 x 30 minutes of trading for over 50000 thalers / h).
Where to sell? Where to buy?
Buy wherever you are and get a good price. Sell where you can get a good price as you continue your route. Going counter-clockwise around the land seems to work OK.
Powder should always be sold to fortresses, the prices can go as high as 1000 and above. Thus, buy powder from towns, sell in cities.
While traveling between towns and fortresses, visit the villages as well. Villages pay well well for certain goods, but they don't have much money. If you find cheap food in village, buy'em and sell high in the next fortress.
If you're new to the game, use the "assess prices" for starters to get a hang of things where to sell, etc. And if your character doesn't have Trade skill, get Ingri to join you.
Using Caravans
If you see a lot of same items for cheap (e.g. 15 iron) and you have a decently sized army (to protect caravan from bandits/enemies), you can send (and escort) a caravan.
Use the Assess Prices in the marketplace to see where you get the best price (write it down if you think you won't remember).
Go talk to the Mayor. Talk about Trade. Say that you want to send a caravan. You'll choose what caravan (e.g. Iron if that's what you're hauling) and then the place the caravan will go.
If/when you escort the caravan, 2 guards is enough. Then just accompany the caravan and keep bandits away until caravan arrives in destination.
If you find yourself using caravans a lot, invest in the trade permit, which costs 2500 thalers. With that you don't need to pay the 5% tax for the caravan.
Investing / Merchant's Guild
As soon as you get an extra 10000 or more, go to a town (choose one friendly to you, or better yet, one you own), go to Town Square, Merchant's Guild and put most of the money there. Money will grow 14% interest (20% if you control the town or have good enough relations with the town) every week without you doing anything.
If you don't like trading (buying low, selling high), just keep on fighting and conquering, sell the loot and put excess money in the Merchant's Guilds.
Mount & Trade (in M&B with Fire & Sword)
Mount & Trade (wF&S)
Mount & Trade II (in M&B with Fire & Sword)
Mount & Trade II (wF&S)
Click here for more Mount & Blade with Fire & Sword videos.
