Selling technologies made easy.
 
 

Depreciation

You get the best value from a technology if it’s new. Selling, trading, or giving away a technology to one nation can more than half it’s value when trying to sell it to other nations.
 
 
For example a particular technology might get you 1,023 at most the first time you sell it, then 536 on the second trade, then 237 on the third, then 133, then 85 and so on.
 
 
While around 50% depreciation is normal, some seem to have a base value where after the third or fourth sale you can sell them to many nations at around that price. For example Improved Animal Husbandry tends to hover at around 400 to 700 even after several sales, while others fall below 50.
 
 
Trying to get the best price for a tech can be tedious, so the idea of this guide is to use it as a ballpark figure to speed up the process. For example if the best price I got for Measuring Tools was listed here as 3,000 then I might try start at 4,000 then drop to 3,000 and then 2,000 and then 1,000 and then 500 and then 200 before giving up. If I got a sale at 2,000 then I’d start at 1,000 when selling it to a second nation, and then 500 to a third. Ofcourse you can walk the price down by smaller amounts to get more money (such as by 250 or 100 per offer), but it’ll take longer. This guide just gives you some idea of where to start. I often save my game before starting a trade.
 
 
 

Values

These were the highest and lowest prices I’ve seen (or in same cases, the only sale I made). I’m sure the range is much larger for many of them. For some I’ve listed every sale (in sequence) and for others (~) I’ve only listed the highest and lowest values I saw. I’ve broken the list into the 12 levels you see in the technology tree.
 
 
Level 1
 

• Carbines: 1,023 ~ 85
• Plug Bayonet: 1,000 – 300 – 150 – 100 ~ 14

 
Level 2
 

• Canister Shot: 1,100 – 500 – 150
• Common Land Enclosures: 1,000 ~ 120
• Empiricism: 800 – 400 – 120
• Flintlock Cannon: 500 ~ 90
• Improved Animal Husbandry: 1,000 ~ 4
• Improved Grenades: 1,250 ~ 20
• Naval Shore Facilities: 2,500 ~ 600
• Physiocracy: 1,200 ~ 100
• Seasoning: 2,300 ~ 50
• Sextant: 2,000 ~ 50
• Social Contract: 300 ~ 13

 
Level 3
 

• Basic Steam Pump: 1,200 ~ 300
• Improved Grape Shot: 2,050 ~ 400
• Longitude Watch: 3,000 ~ 550
• Naval Architecture Advances: 3,000
• Ring Bayonet: 1,400 ~ 300
• Spinning Jenny: 1,200 ~ 200
• Square Formation: 400

 
Level 4
 

• Carronades: No data
• Coke Blast Furnace: 2,000 ~ 150
• Copper Bottoms: 3,500 ~ 800
• Division of Labour: 3,000 ~ 300
• Explosive Shells: 700 ~ 120
• Flying Shuttle: 2,000 ~ 200
• Four Crop Field Rotation: 2,000 ~ 100
• Government By Consent: 3,000 ~ 200
• Lime Juice: 6,900
• Military Syllabus: 1,500 ~ 400
• Measuring Tools: 3,000 ~ 150
• Reformed Naval Administration: 5,800 ~ 1,300
• Spinning Mule: 2,200
• Utilitarianism: 2,500 ~ 600

 
Level 5
 

• Advanced Irrigation: 6,000 ~ 4,000
• European Doctrine: Ottoman Empire only
• Improved Coppering: 5,000 ~ 1,250
• Joint Stock Companies: 2,000 – 680
• Machine Tools: 8,800 – 1,100 – 400
• Puddling Furnace: 3,500 – 800
• Punch-Card Loom: No data
• Rifled Cannons: No data
• Seed Planting Drill: 6,250 ~ 300
• Separation of Powers: 3,200 – 800 – 350
• Wedge Formation: 1,700

 
Level 6
 

• Cadenced Marching: 2,500
• Carca*s shot: 4,000 ~ 200
• Fire By Rank: 3,500 – 900
• National Debt: 5,500 – 1,200 – 600
• Power Loom: No data
• Preserved Foods: No data
• Rights of Man: 5,500
• Selective Breeding: 4,500 – 1,150
• Sheet Lead Cartridges: No data
• Socket Bayonet: 4,150
• Steam Engine: No data
• Steam-Pumped Land Drainage: No data
• Top Gallants: No data
• Wealth of Nations: 4,000 – 2,000 – 1,000 – 600

 
Level 7
 

• Citizenship: No data
• Diamond Formation: 2,000 – 500 – 200
• Explosive Rockets: No data
• Free Trade Doctrine: No data
• Interchangeable Parts: No data
• Ma*s Production: No data
• New Model Bayonet Drill: 5,200 ~ 350
• Secular Humanism: No data
• Threshing Machine: No data

 
Level 8
 

• Abolition of Slavery: No data
• Cla*sical Economics: No data
• Fire and Advance: No data
• Reorganised Procurement: 6,900 ~ 1,500

 
Level 9
 

• Light Infantry Doctrine: No data
• Quicklime Shells: 8,400 ~ 2,100
• Shortened Carbines: No data

 
Level 10
 

• Platoon Firing: No data

 
Level 11
 

• Airguns: Austria only
• Machined Rifling: No data
• Shrapnel Shot: 14,500 ~ 3,500

 
Level 12
 

• Percussion Cap: No data
• Percussion Shells: 38,500 – 4,500 – 2,000
• Screw Breech: Great Britain only

Two strategies

On the one hand, it’s worth selling all the technologies you can because the AI seem to unlock a large number of them as the campaign goes on, even if they don’t conduct much research themselves. I a*sume the AI trade with eachother (or just steal technologies) so you might aswel be the one doing the selling. Remember that if you gain a technology through trade, you can immediately then sell it on to others if they don’t have it.
 
 
On the other hand, selling technologies to other nations can give them direct advantages to their military capabilities, economy, and navy. Even indirectly it can help them speed up unlocking even more useful late game techs.
 
 
Generally I take a mixed approach, selling them if I can get atleast a couple of hundred coins, but not bothering to try to squeeze less than that out of them. Fire By Rank seems especially powerful, so that’s one I might refuse to sell (selling it to an ally might lead to it being sold to an enemy). The best one to sell might be Measuring Tools, because many nations pay hundreds (if not thousands) for it, and AI will either not bother to use it, or they’ll invest the money to build nice roads for you to capture and benefit from.
 
 
 

Tricks

One trick to get technologies from other nations is to station some troops near the border of a region – close enough to recapture it in one turn, but not close enough to be forced into a tactical retreat when selling it. You then trade the region for technologies (and potentially thousands of coins too) before declaring war to recapture it on the next turn. This can work well selling the region to a nation you’re about to declare war on anyway, and then forcing the city to surrender.
 
 
One player describes a lesson in trickery:
 
 

Originally posted by anonymous:
i sold Flanders for 15k and 6 mayor tecs to Russia. The turn after i took it back, next turn they wanted peace and gave me 4k. And 10-20 tuns later they buy flanders for 13k and more tecs.

 
Another trick is to siege a city, and then offer peace in exchange for their technologies. Attacking them again within a few turns will count heavily against you as “dishonoring treaties” though.
 
 
 

Notes

AI seem to have unlimited money for buying technologies. Often when they sound offended by a trade you’ve demanded more than double of what they’re willing to pay, and sometimes start to counter-offer when you get nearer to an agreement, although sometimes they sound offended when you’re near a deal anyway. In general the system can be glitchy, made obvious when they send you demands and offer nothing in return, or like when the Barbary States can refuse to buy Improved Animal Husbandry for 5 coins, but begrudgingly accept it for 4.
 
 
I found an interesting quirk. An AI was willing to buy a Carca*s Shot from me for 4,000, or trade it for a Military Syllabus and the Spinning Jenny, so they clearly valued their two technologies at 4,000, but weren’t willing to sell them directly for 4,000.
 
 
Of the major nations that have certain techs unlocked from the start: France starts with Empiricism, Great Britain starts with Seasoning (as does Austria, Maratha Confederacy, Mughal Empire, Poland, Russian, and Sweden), Ottoman Empire starts with Improved Grenades and Canister Shot, Prussia starts with Plug Bayonet.
 
 
Campaign difficulty doesn’t seem to impact tech trade values. If you’re desperate for a tech that an AI nation owns but can’t afford to buy it, sometimes offering repeat payments can work, although they tend to sell them for very high values.
 
 
 

Offers and attitudes

I tried to sell a Carbines to a friendly nation which offered to buy it for 280 coins, while the highest they were willing to pay was actually 1,023 coins. Interestingly, when I loaded the save again and tried the same thing to a hostile nation, they were also willing to pay 1,023 coins for it at most. Neither were willing to pay 1,024 even when threatened.
 
 
While attitudes don’t seem to impact offer values, some nations value certain techs more than others. Advanced Irrigation is a good example of this inconsistency, as I got 5,600 on a first sale of it, and then 4,000 on the second. On another campaign I got a first time sale of 1,000 for it, but then incredibly selling it to another nation got me 6,000.
 
 

 
 
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