How to trade, set trading rules and trade routes in Manor Lords, explained

Trade is a mechanic Landlords which allows you to convert your surplus goods into regional wealth, and then use that regional wealth to import other goods. It’s a good way to take something your city is good at (e.g. having a lot of wool) and turn it into something your city needs, like more beer.

Us Landlords trading guide explains all the steps for setting up a trading post, the rules for importing and exporting, and how (and why) trade routes are established.


How trading works in Manor Lords

While you play Landlordsa traveling merchant will periodically wander through your city. These traders visit your trading post – if you have one – and try to buy or sell goods to comply with the rules you have set.

You can import (pay to bring in regional wealth), export (send goods in exchange for regional wealth) or full trade (import or export to ensure your current surplus matches your desired surplus – more on this below).

Below we will also discuss the other types of trading you can do at a packing station.


How to build a trading post

Image: Slavic magic/hooded horse via polygon

The first step in setting up trading is building a trading platform trading post (4 wood). There you can assign families to work on it – they both go out to sell (export) goods and also set up market stalls to distribute the goods you import. You can also order a new horse for 30 regional assets that will speed up transit times for your merchants,

but you can only be assigned two horses.

The Trade tab of the Trading Post allows you to set the rules for your import-export business, including establishing trade routes.


How trading rules work, including ‘set rule to no trade’ explained

If you click on the Trade tab of a trading post, you will be presented with a menu of all the goods your city may have, divided into six categories: construction, crops, food, crafting materials, raw materials, and military.

Manor Lords trading post menu

Image: Slavic magic/hooded horse via polygon

Below the categories you will see some numbers and other information. From the left you can choose to do this import that specific good (pay regional wealth to get more), export it (send out that good in exchange for regional wealth), full trade (import or export), or set it back to no trade (no trade in that good in either direction).

In addition to the good, you also have a place to put your things desired surplus. This is the number of additional goods you want to have on hand; the surplus is calculated after current construction and market demand. For export, the trading post will send out that good until the quantity is reached. For imports, the trading post will bring that good in until you reach the number. For full trading, it will try to keep the surplus at that number.

To the right you will see the (current) export price followed by the import price (importing is always higher). Immediately next to it is an indicator for the supply on the global market – basically how easy and cheap it is to get that good thing. For example, it is possible to flood the market and make exports impossible.

There is a button on the far right establish a trade route.


How to establish a trade route

Traveling merchants regularly wander through your city. However, they are not on schedule, so they are a bit unpredictable. They also mix and match the goods they buy and sell, which means you may not get as many as you’re looking for. If you want to supply your city with water, that’s not ideal.

In the trading post menu you can pay for some regional resources establish a trade route. This just means that the traveling merchants’ visits will be on a regular schedule and will only focus on that one type of good – meaning you’ll be moving more of it.

Some goods – usually the more valuable ones – require a trade route to import or export.


Packing stations are not the same as trading posts

The other way to move goods between regions is by building packing stations (1 wood). These do a different kind of business. First, the families assigned to a packing station use mules (the only place where mules are used). Landlords).

More importantly, packinghouses do not trade in regional wealth. Instead, packing stations only move goods between two settlements two different regions that you manage. In the packing station menu, you set the city the station trades with, what goods they send out, and what goods they trade it for – with a modifier for the relative value of those goods.