Trading: The Variety of Possibilties

Civilizations have managed to accumulate their wealth based on two factors, the first is through warfare and the second is through trade. The topic of warfare will be discussed at a later time, trading will be explained in this blog. In Civilization V the player is able to begin their quest to establish trading relations with any civilization after they have unlocked the Animal Husbandry technology. When unlocked, the game screen will display the limit to how many trade routes the player may establish. Some civilizations may be able to establish more trade routes, while others aren't so fortunate. However, the starting limit to the amount of trade routes is 1.

By researching Animal Husbandry, a civilization is able to gain the information and the ability to create a Caravan unit. this particular unit serves as a commercial link from one civilization to another. This exchange could include a set amount of Technology, Gold, and Faith. Once constructed, the Caravan will link with a nearby city and make the transition to trade with it. There is a limit to the range of the Caravan unit, and that is 30 tiles from the starting city to the other city. Also, it cannot cross Lakes, Coasts, or Lakes.

This is the technology that begins the path to commerce in Civilization V.

Instead, the Cargo Ship serves as the link for Coastal Cities. The player can unlock this unit by successfully unlocking the Sailing Technology. In addition, the player may gain an additional trade route that they may establish. With certain technologies, a civilization may be able to gain additional trade routes to their commercial empire. Also, certain Wonders like the Colossus and Petra serve as World Wonders that can be constructed and increase the limit of trade routes for that civilization.

As previously mentioned, there is a limit to the range of trade routes both on land and sea. As previously mentioned, Land Trade Routes are limited to 30 tiles, but Naval Trade Routes are limited to 20 tiles. However, both may be expanded with further advancement in technology. In the case of Land Trade Routes, there is the creation of a Caravansary which extends the range to 15 tiles (pre-Combustion) and 30 tiles after researching Combustion. The Caravansary may be built after researching the Commerce Technology. In addition, it allows the Caravans owner to reap an additional +2 Gold.

As for Naval Trade Routes, there are a bit more solution to adding more range. The three pieces to expanding Naval Trade Routes are the Compass Technology, the Harbor building, and the Refrigeration Technology. All of these will equate to an increase in range of about 60 tiles. Keep in mind that these routes are very vulnerable, as even in today's society there are pillagers of the sea. However, the same could be said for Land Trade Routes. In addition, both may be canceled if the other party has/is declared/targeted for war.

The amount of Gold that is gained is dependent on the amount of resources that one possesses. In addition, the amount of infrastructure that is built in the city plays a pivotal role in the amount of Gold gained. In a nutshell, the more diverse your resources, the income of the two cities and any special buildings they may have. For more in depth look into the variety of factors that play into the role of trading and what determines Gold, Science, Faith, etc. please consult this informational guide (http://www.carlsguides.com/strategy/civilization5/empire/traderoutes.php).

All of this relates to the fact that trading does build a Civilization. In this instance, it is the Shoshone tribe of North America. Through the initial Turquoise Route that connected the Native Americans of both North and Central America, many goods were traded with one another. The Shoshone would trade for natural goods that were found in their region with those found further south. It is believed that through these interactions that the Shoshone people had managed to obtain mustangs from the Spanish.

The various goods that they traded were animal hides such as foxes, bison, wolf, or eagle. In addition they also created their own clothes which consisted of leather jerkins, moccasins, headdresses, breeches, etc. They also managed to harvest the variety of different dyes in their geographic area, such as cacti for a green dye. They also managed to add even more diversity for the wide range of colored beads that they used to decorate their clothing.

Whenever the Americans would arrive to establish the Santa Fe Trail in the early 19th century, both the Shoshone and Mexicans would be there. The Shoshone for their part would serve as guides for the Americans, and would scout out the land in an effort to expand trading relations with the United States. Through their actions, the trade of buffalo hides and the latter expansion of the railway system would continue into the 19th century and would expand their humble trading. The American settlers would bring weaponry, manufactured goods, and many more wondrous pieces of technology.

A pair of Shoshone Moccasins. One of the signature articles of clothing for Native American tribes.

Trade is what essentially expands the technology, ideas, thought, beliefs and culture to another civilization. In World History this could be dated back to the Silk Road and the cultural, technological and religious impacts it had. Throughout history it has played a role, from early Han Dynasty, to Kublai Khan's China it has played a significant role. All major civilization in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East have attempted to govern the vast expanse of this epic trade route. All have succeeded, for a period of time, only for a new civilization to take up the reins of the old. It's as if there is a passing of the torch to acquiring the Silk Road, ad no one civilization has held it forever. Such is trade, in that it comes and goes with the times.

However, in keeping with the times, these same trade routes are deemed less important with new forms of technology. In Civilization V there is more profit to be had when a civilization establishes a naval trade route, than a land based one. This is a reflection of the gradual shift from the Silk Road's usage in the Han Dynasty, Islamic Empire, and finally the Mongolian Empire. It wasn't until new forms of naval technology emerged and completely replaced the need for a long distance trade route, when a naval one could travel in less time.

Social Policies

Due to the Shoshone's ability to grow there civilization and expand at a rapid pace, it only makes sense to focus on the culture of the civilization. That is why in my prior post, the building I was constructing was a Monument, a building that costs 1 Gold per turn, and boosts my civilizations culture output by 2 per turn. However, due to it being early game from the Ancient Era, it will take about 30 turns to construct this building. Though, if able to and if I have the needed population in my city, I could focus my citizens to work on generating production for this building.

With this boost, my civilization should be able to attain more Social Policies. Many of you are probably wondering what "Social Policies" are, well they are the paths that a civilization takes that determines their future. For instance, upon achieving 75 culture points, the player is able to select between three initial Social Policy trees. These trees serve as a guideline for one's civilization. They are; Liberty, Honor, and Tradition. Each one holds a significance in its own unique way. For example, Liberty is best for large civilizations that desire rapid growth, while in contrast Tradition is best for small civilizations. Then there is Honor, which is the policy that deals with improving ones military in a variety of ways.

This is the desired policy route my civilization will strive for now. 

This is the start of my policy route. Keep in mind this is 795 years, or simply 52 turns in that I'm able to achieve this.

In the case of the Shoshone, I chose to diversify my civilization. By that, I chose to implement both Tradition and Honor into my Social Policies. The reason I chose Tradition is so that I gain more benefits to my Capital and generate more defense, no maintenance for my soldiers, and in the future a free culture building for my first 4 cities. Now, in regards to Honor, I chose it so that I could generate a massive amount of culture and develop my military. You see, with Honor I'm able to generate culture for every slain Barbarian unit killed. (Barbarians are neither a city-state or another civilization, but their own entity and exist in all eras until each "encampment" is destroyed.) So, with that I believe that by developing my Capital and my military I would be better equipped in dealing with any unforeseen hostilities.

In the world, both of Civilization and historic it is better to be well equipped for a battle. There are a variety of civilizations in the game whose sole desire is to conquer the vast lands of other civilizations. So, it is better to be well equipped and fend them off, than be caught with one's pants down. That is my reasoning for choosing Honor, as for Tradition there is another significance there. Though the Shoshone do have the name, "The Great Expanse" they didn't rapidly create their cities, nor did they expand everywhere in the nation. Unlike the Aztec, Maya, Iroquois, Sioux or Cheyenne they were rather contempt to their lands. They seldom sought expansion, and instead they sought to better their lands and safeguard their lands.

Social Policies play a pivotal role in the development of a civilization, both in Civilization V and the real world. Social policies exist as a form of stepping stone for a civilization to jump through, as it progresses onto the next step. Once a civilization has fully unlocked a policy, it moves onto the next one. Some focus on one sole policy, others focus on multiple policies. Whatever a civilization may be, it all stems from their decisions regarding social policies. Will the civilization have the best military without investing in Honor? Possibly, but think about this: those that invest in Honor are better able to maintain and upgrade a military. 

Babylon and the other City-States focused on their own spheres of influence, and so they focused on the Tradition aspect of Social Policies. The same could not be said for the people of Persia, as they focused on Liberty, in that they sought a massive and widespread expansion of the Middle East. When observing the Romans, they too sought expansion of their borders and to due so they built up their military, where the Honor policy would have played a role. In a nutshell, whatever the goals of every civilization, it can be attained through investing in the Social Polices given. For my final example, take the triple play that the Muslims played in the 11th Century with the usage of Liberty, Honor, and Piety. These three combined created the Islamic world, in that their borders expanded due to their superior military and their faith.  

In relation to the concepts of World History, the two Social Policies known as Piety and Honor are closely related to the themes of Society and Its Categories, Spiritual Life and Moral Codes, and Politics and Power. They are all related in that they deal with the development of a civilization as a whole. The example I mentioned earlier involving the Islamic World is by far the one that fits this bill. It should be noted that societies advance from their categories through the constant development of their civilizations culture. In order for a society to alter its categories, it must continue its growth through the next series of stages.

In regards to what a society may choose to set for its civilizations course, that depends on the a variety of factors. More than likely, one would not see the build up of a societies military if they were far away from any nearby threats or possessed a natural barrier between themselves. This could be one of the reasons that the United States didn't develop its military into that of the professional European armies that dotted the globe in the 18th and 19th entities. The same could be said for the figurative "buffer zones" that the Christian kingdoms established in an effort to contain the spread of Islam. This of course is in regards to the development of a societies course. 

Its interesting to observe the initial three policies that a civilization may choose from the start. In a way, I suppose that the Liberty is to represent a Classical Republic, Tradition and Oligarchy and finally Honor is a representation of an Early Autocracy. These three are things that could be early representations of the types of societies that eventually developed. Though it is worth mentioning that Liberty is tied into with the Enlightenment, but its roots could be stretched all the way to ancient Greeks and their concepts. However, with the diversity of the Greek City-States, they also dabbled into the concepts of Tradition and Honor. These exist in the City-States such as Athens for Tradition and Sparta for Honor. 

The Start of the Great Expanse

So, I began my journey through time with the unique perspective of the Shoshone people. Beginning in the years 4,000 B.C., my civilization has just established its first city due to the Settler unit I had started with. You'll notice that the amount of land I now possess is exceedingly higher than other civilizations, and that's  due to the unique trait of the Shoshone, dubbed "The Great Expanse". With this trait, my capital city of Moson Kahni and the other cities I may found will possess a vast amount of territory that is unrivaled in the game.  This fits very well with the tradition of the Shoshone people, as their civilization was geared towards the amount of land to best suit their hunter way of life.

In addition to the starting Settler unit, I also start with my unique unit, the Pathfinder. This particular unit replaces the traditional Scout unit that every civilization starts off with. Unlike the standard Scout, the Pathfinder has a higher amount of strength, rivaling that of a Warrior. Also, if my Pathfinder were to come across the remnants of fallen civilizations, or "Ancient Ruins" I can select the bonus I could get for them. These bonuses include; discovering a new technology, recruiting the lost civilization into your civilization, trading with the Lost Civilization, gaining some culture from their ways of life, looking at their maps, observing their faith, etc. Thus, the Pathfinder is an exceptionally superior unit early game, because it can move as fast as a Scout and hit as hard as a Warrior.

The Shoshone's vast amount of starting land, and the various tiles that are under my grasp in 4,000 B.C. 

So, when my capital was founded, I noted that the amount of territory that I controlled was vast. I had the ability to improve a variety of tiles that possessed lush grasslands. In addition, I had two tiles that possessed cattle as a resource for a higher yield of food production. There were at least four tiles that possessed forests, three of the four held a luxury resource that would improve the happiness of my civilization, truffles and dyes. While the truffles weren't a part of the Shoshone people's way of life, the dyes did in some manner of way. This would lead to a variety of different colored beads, jerkins, moccasins, face paint, etc.

You see, these resources would help later in the game to provide a counter-balance to the amount of citizens I have in my civilization. When I founded my city, I had one citizen in my population and so my "Overall Happiness" was at a +5. However, as the game progresses, I need to increase the amount of people I have in my civilization. The reason behind this concept of having more people, is because like the actual civilizations, I need people to work the many tiles I have. Every luxury resource I possess increases the happiness +4, and for every citizen I have, my "Overall Happiness" reduces.

Now, you'll notice on the screenshot of my beginning displays a lot of variables in the top left portion of the screen. These ever changing variables include; Technology that is being researched, the amount of science and gold I gain per turn, my existing trade routes (as of now, I have none), my Overall Happiness counter, my Golden Age tracker (I'll explain that in a moment), my culture, tourism, and faith I gain per turn. All of these play a role in shaping my civilization through their unique ways, In order to have a functioning civilization, one must have funds, culture, science, faith, trade, etc.