How to establish a Trade Route in Manor Lords

Trading goods with neighboring regions is a Manor Lords gameplay mechanic that can either simplify the growth of your town or destroy it. 

Not all regions in Manor Lords are created equally, with most missing at least one essential resource. To compensate for missing or low resources within a region, it’s essential to build a Trading Post along the King’s Road. Adding a Trading Post in Manor Lords will require a permanent Family to work it, removing villagers from your total labor pool. I never recommend removing the Family you assign to the Trading Post as the building is necessary for your town’s overall growth and well-being. 

How to get a Trade Route in Manor Lords

Once all essentials like fuel and food are met in Manor Lords, I recommend constructing a Trading Post and assigning a Family to run it. Under the Trading Post menu, go to the Trade tab. Here, you’ll find every recourse in Manor Lords that can get Imported and Exported.

To set up a Trade Route, purchase it by clicking on the circle tab with a Horse and carriage. You can try to sell and buy goods without it, but I don’t recommend this. Once you obtain a Development Point from expanding the town, you can choose the Trade Logistics tab to reduce the cost of all Trade Routes to 25 Regional Wealth. This is a stellar deal that I highly recommend as some routes can cost up to several hundred to unlock. 

How to run a Trading Post in Manor Lords

You’ll want to evaluate the weakest areas of your village, accessing what you can create and what you’ll need to Import. The first item I recommend Importing is Herbs as you can’t grow them and they’re needed when a villager gets sick. Without Herbs, villagers can perish, leaving you without a proper labor pool to survive. 

After determining weak areas, take advantage of the resources you have in abundance. My first region had a massive amount of Clay that I could Export (sell) from the Trading Post to build up Regional Wealth. The land in that village had poor Fertility, requiring me to Fallow more often. Running low on food isn’t wise, so I would use profits from Clay Tiles to purchase items like Wheat, keeping up on my surplus of food so my villagers in Manor Lords didn’t starve during the winter months.