Trading is the basis of Merchant Empires. With trading come experience points, enabling you to use advanced ships, and most importantly, money to buy them.

The idea of trading is simple: buy a good on a planet cheaply and sell it at another for a profit.

When the old empire collapsed, the planets were thrown into anarchy. In the resulting power struggles, the advanced planetary industries were destroyed. Therefore, as order was slowly being restored, the main part of economy again shifted to trading basic goods, such as ores, water and food.

But the industries are slowly beginning to grow again, and they need goods that the planets on which they are based cannot provide. That is where you, the player, come in. Acting planetary governors will post petitions for growing industries. When enough goods of the required type are delivered, the petitioner that won, builds the industry, which soon starts producing a new, more complex (and potentially more valuable) good. After a petition has won, the governor presents a completely new list of petitions.

However, the newly built industry still requires the base goods that were required in the petition, in order to continue making the new product. The latest efficiency surveys show that the following formula is very accurate for calculating the production rate: (amount of goods brought)/(amount of good types needed for something)

Example:
Planet Andromeda has just upgraded and gains machinery. It is already producing steel so to maintain supply you deliver some plastics (machinery is created from steel, plastics and energy). If you were to deliver 300 units of plastics, the planet would produce 100 units of steel and store them in supply.

A planet in current sector screen appears like this:

The three links in the current sector planet picture take you to three different port interaction screens:

• Upgrade
  
  
  In this screen, you support the petition which you feel is most appropriate for the future development of the planet. The needed for upgrade field shows which goods and how much of each the petitioner needs to establish an industry.
  
  
• Buy
  
  
  All the goods that you can buy are placed here. You can buy as long as the supply level is above 0.
  
  
• Sell
  
  
  On this screen, you sell goods to the planet. You can sell all goods, except the ones the planet is producing. However, only the goods needed to supply the planetary industry will turn a profit.
  
  

1. (Most important): Distance
   The distance rating is the most important element in getting more money from a trade. When two planets are close together, i.e. neighboring, you get the least money and experience points for a sale. When the distance between a planet supplying and the planet buying a good increases, so do the profits and experience gained.

   Note that it doesn't matter if you buy a good at one end of a galaxy and sell it at the other, the distance is calculated from the nearest planet selling the good.

2. Cargo space
   It is only natural, that you get more money (and experience) for 600 units of cargo than for 120, isn't it?

   
   

   Due to the chaos in the galaxy these days, random identity checks are performed every once in a while, surveys show roughly every 25 trades. The planet owner sends a query, and you have to enter the proper code. Upon transmitting an improper code, you are detained and questioned, resulting in a loss of 5 turns for every incorrect code entered.