Economy

Economy (Page 1)
Economy in Common Universalis is very different from that of the vanilla game. Unlike in vanilla, where expansion is almost everything, Economy plays a key role in the game regardless of your playstyle.

Urbanization 1 (Page 2)
Urbanization is the basis of CU's economy system. Province development in CU is re-divided to three types: Commerce, Production and Agriculture. They cannot be manually improved by investing Monarchy Power, instead, each of them has a separate growth progress(Showed in 'Province Census'). When the Agriculture progress of a province hits 100, 1 Agriculture is gained. When the Commerce/Production progress hits 100, 1 Agriculture is converted to Commerce/Production - which is what 'Urbanization' means.

So, what's the benefits of 'Urbanization'? The first benefit is to your income. While three types of development all provide money and manpower, income from Agriculture is much less money than those from Commerce and Production, and can hardly be magnified by technology,building and trade. Secondly, each province has an Agriculture Capacity related to terrain, climate, technology and building. When a province's Agriculture reaches its cap, it will stop growing until one Agriculture is converted. Thirdly, Commerce and Production speed up literacy growth, while Agriculture slows it down. Finally, Commerce and Production provides (and consume) more Governance Capacity than Agriculture.

Urbanization 2 (Page 3)
So, what factors affect Urbanization? Think about reality and you will get the answer: Agriculture, Literacy, Infrastructure(buildings), and policy(Province Edicts). Agriculture is the prerequisite because it determines the Urbanization Capacity of the province (also remember that Commerce and Production come from Agriculture); Literacy determines how fast your nobles and peasants will go into markets and factories, buildings like roads, workshops and markets boost both capacity and rate. Province Edicts like 'Grant Commercial Privileges' and 'Force Enclosure' boost Commercial/Production growth for a period of time at the cost of money and Monarch Power.

'Development Time' and 'Local Development Time' modifiers reduce the time of Commercial.Production and Agriculture Growth.

Inflation (Page 4)
While both a result of Urbanization, Commerce and Production have different effects. Commerce increase province's commercial tax income and trade power, and Production increase production tax and goods output. While both seems nice, you should better keep them in balance, as the ratio of Commerce and Production determines your inflation rate. If Commerce is higher than Production, inflation comes; if Production takes the lead, you will suffer deflation. Like in reality, inflation and deflation both have their pros and cons, but only when they are at a low rate. High inflation and high deflation are both devastating and will destroy your economy and even you country.

Devastation and Migration (Page 5)
Economy is not always growing. Setbacks happen at times. When a province is captured, there is a chance that it will permanently lose 1 development, large provinces suffer a lot more - once captured, your enemy will get an event to decide whether they shall pillage this province. If so, the only thing you can do is to pillage theirs in revenge.

Provinces with a high development may transfer their development to other provinces('Migration'), providing a development time discount to that province, and influence the culture of the target province. The migration target may be an oversea colony, either owned by yourself or by a colonial subject, a province of your homeland, a foreign colony, or a province of your neighbor countries. If enough immigrants of your culture group have settled in one of your provinces, they will change its culture into your primary culture. Famine, devastation, religious persecution and other bad things will increase the likelihood of immigration, and famine will avoid immigrants from entering the province.

Trade and Mercantilism (Page 6)
Large empires rely heavily on trade. In Common Universalis, Mercantilism increases province trade power and gives extra merchants, but in the meantime reduces your trade efficiency and increases corruption. You can adjust Mercantilism by 1(or 2 if you have finished Trade Ideas) each time you switch your trade Policy. Increase Mercantilism when you compete with strong trade opponents, and reduce it to maximize your trade income when you win this zero-sum game.

In Common Universalis, you cannot manually upgrade Center of Trade to lv3. Instead, each lv2 CoT has a chance to become lv3 once it has enough trade power to meet the criterion, which increases naturally by time. To get a lv3 Cot, you should increase province Commerce as well as country's trade efficiency.