HOI4 Trade Tutorial | How Trading Resources Works

Trading in Hearts of Iron is kinda odd & difficult for many new players. This is because there's no money, or piles of rubber you can gather up. By the end of this guide, you will understand how trade works, and be mastering Resource Markets across the HOI4 world.
Trade with/without DLC is almost identical - although a couple of minor differences are highlighted in the video, to do with trade routes, and trade influence.
Unlike other RTS games, our Resources are NOT gathered up, and there is NO money. Once we understand how factories can be used for trade, and resources are instantly used or wasted, this begins to make sense.
So how is trade managed? Are there any advantages to trade partners? What about Trade Routes? All this will be demonstrated, in detail.
Trading in HOI4 is vital, and the only way many countries are able to gain resources they need. Many countries will be short on rubber for long periods of time (as an example), but there are a few countries that produce a lot of excess rubber. This gives different countries, and the resource deposits they sit upon, huge advantages at certain periods of time.
This video is 1 topic featured in more detail, that is also covered more briefly alongside many topics in the longer complete HOI4 introduction tutorial 2023 lasting over 3 hours:
kzbin.infoKRqKwIB8OJc

[@gameswithbrains]

Trade in HOI4 is kinda strange, but once you seen this video & get it, actually makes a lot of sense. (at roughly 12min 40 - I state "allies can setup a trade with you" - I should have said "Allies AND NEUTRAL countries can setup a trade with you"

[@JELONGreatMrRed]

Trading in nutshell: dont trade with the countries you are gonna fight with, always trade with your strongest allies or countries that have good opinion on you. Only fuel stacks up, which means the rest of the resources will go to hell as fast as you stop the trade (if you have 11 rubber from trade, you can use them for projects that use 11 rubber. but if you stop the trade you would need to extract the rubber from your territory because that 11 rubber from the trade dissapears or goes back to the country you traded with.). What ive found also is that you cant sell the resources, but ai will buy them by themselves, you can check it out by your self when looking with your cursor at the factories, it will probably say for example: 34 owned + 14 from trade.

[@ivanstefanovic1527]

Thank you so much for these HOI videos, by far the best on KZbin for learning the game imo.

[@DavesModelWorkshop]

Thank you - informative and concise, and not dumbed down like some other videos. Cheers.

[@peja8269]

Again great video i hope your chanel will grow. Chears from Croatia!

[@user-hm2ch4qh6m]

Nice video, especially the convoy routes information. i think you mentioned this in a previous video. Dont have the man the guns dlc, might consider it in the future.

[@gameswithbrains]

Man the guns, and no step back are my top 2 DLC, mostly for the naval ships designer, and tank designer (respectively). If I was only allowed to keep 2, them would be it, and there's almost nothing between them to make one top. I think my next video might showcase the game with these DLC, because they're the best in my view, and as a lot of the channel content is evergreen, hopefully the longer the videos are live, the more people will gain something from them.

[@kiwinesss]

Awesome as always

[@UptownGuy4]

In your example of importing rubber from Brazil and avoiding the English Channel to Germany, is it possible to route the shipping lane into an ally like Italy or Romania? Or does this already exist but through some DLC?

[@futurebillionaire7232]

ITS AWSOME DUDE

[@noble9759]

I have a export of 1326 steel I need 643. I exported 1300 out of the 1600 i mined. I've been buying out every single country to get back 113 steel but I still need 199. I think I need to reduce consumer goods and change the market as america so I can keep my steel

[@pariah2840]

How do you export resources?

[@gameswithbrains]

It's an automatic process.. if you have spare resources (that overflow into oblivion) and then another country wants to trade with you - that's it. As long as you're on friendly terms, this will automatically be accepted... You also have a separate "trade laws" page, but this is different again, and can be viewed almost like a tax the game puts onto your resources (it claims it's for trade, although nobody actually gets the stuff) - for example if you go free trade agreement, I think 80% of everything you pull out the ground is simply deleted - although you get a bunch of bonuses that are useful super early in the game.