Increased income vs. Increased citizens

[Eddard]

Hello, I am trying to pick a good set of trades and I am assuming that it is better to get resources that increase your income rather than increasing your citizens, because more citizens means you have to buy more land, correct? And with increased income you have the same amount of people making more money. I am not sure if this is the most efficient way to make money.

[enderland]

The best trade sets are those that increase your population. Normally the best "growing nation" set is a 3BR set, which is given its name because it has the resources required for three bonus resources - Beer, Construction, and Fast Food. The trades required for that are 10 resources and then are normally supplemented by fish and uranium/gems.

Having to purchase land is a very very very small cost compared to the increase in income a set like this gives.

I would recommend looking in the Trading Harbor subforum here for a trade circle to join (again I would suggest a 3BR with beer/fastfood/construction). A trade circle is where six nations all trade with each other (you can have five trades with the Harbor improvement) to ensure the best benefit for all the nations as well as ensure trade stability.

[Eddard]

That sounds beneficial except for the uranium, which damages my environment/population happiness. What is the use of this if I don't plan on having a war anytime soon, and can't own nuclear weapons?

[Velocity111]

That's why he put /gems there. Good luck setting up a set without uranium though, as you'll have to find a set of nations who are in need of a TC who also don't want uranium, which may be difficult.

[Iceknave]

[quote name='Hap Orville' timestamp='1337300167' post='2968926']
That sounds beneficial except for the uranium, which damages my environment/population happiness. What is the use of this if I don't plan on having a war anytime soon, and can't own nuclear weapons?
[/quote]
Because of the benefit with technology.

[quote]If a nations government preference favors nuclear technology for the use of nuclear power plants but does not support nuclear weapons then the nation will receive +$3.00 per citizen and +$0.15 for every level of tech purchased up to level 30 but loses -1 population happiness.[/quote]

With 30 technology, it's about the same as 5.5 to income. The impact of environment on a small nation is not really all that big.

Edited May 18, 2012 by Iceknave

[enderland]

[quote name='Hap Orville' timestamp='1337300167' post='2968926']
That sounds beneficial except for the uranium, which damages my environment/population happiness. What is the use of this if I don't plan on having a war anytime soon, and can't own nuclear weapons?
[/quote]

If you do have uranium, make sure your government position on uranium is changed. I'll let you explore which is best (there are only 3, after all, and you can change positions as much as you want).

[quote name='Iceknave' timestamp='1337313372' post='2968986']With 30 technology, it's about the same as 5.5 to income. The impact of environment on a small nation is not really all that big.
[/quote]

Environment hurts small nations much more than larger nations.