Update 1.4 reworks Trade Orders from a flat automation tool into something closer to a ladder of involvement: you decide how much of your economy you want to run by hand, and the game meets you at that level. Everything here comes from Tinto Talks 124, posted September 16, 2026 and read in full. It is all preview content for update 1.4. None of it is live in the current build yet, and the developers have stressed throughout the 1.4 diaries that preview numbers and mechanics can change before release. The current trade system is covered in the site’s EU5 trade guide, and this article is specifically about what changes in 1.4. If you want the running tally of everything confirmed for the update, the Río Salado hub article keeps that list current.

Why the trade system is being reworked

The release-era Trade system was binary: either fully manual, where you set up individual trades between two specific Markets, or fully automated. The manual path never really worked, because EU5’s economy is granular and changes fast. A trade you hand-picked could become unprofitable or simply unavailable the very next day, which made hands-on trading feel like babysitting.

Trade Orders arrived in 1.2 and 1.3 as a first attempt at a middle layer. You picked a Good to import or export and the AI handled the details. The developers describe that version as “a fine start” that needed more work, which is the honest framing for everything below: this is a rework of a system that already exists, not a brand-new feature.

The design goal for 1.4 is an involvement ladder, with Trade officially described as optional complexity that enriches the game without forcing engagement. The developers even name the extremes themselves: trade naturally matters far more for a tall Holland than for a wide Horde of the steppes. The rework lets each of those countries engage exactly as much as that style of play rewards.

Involvement level 1: no interaction

By default, Trade stays fully automated in all Markets, identical to current behavior, with one difference: the UI is cleaner and shows less noise. New players and players who do not care about trade never need to open the Trading panel. The default experience barely changes, which is the point. Level one is a polish pass, not a new requirement.

Involvement level 2: strategic interaction

At level two, Trade Orders get their defining rework: they become a priority queue.

Orders placed higher in the list receive Trade Capacity first. Whatever capacity is left over trickles down to the next Order, and finally to the regular automation. You can add unlimited Trade Orders, even ones that add up to more capacity than you have. Orders that cannot be served simply stay inactive as fallbacks until capacity becomes available, and you never have to revisit them by hand to re-enable them.

Each Order is allocated either a flat amount of Trade Capacity or a percentage of the Market’s total. A 100% allocation means “use all available capacity for this Order before the automation even looks at the next one.”

Three dynamic presets are confirmed, and they are the only ones named in the diary:

• Any Export: automatically finds the most profitable exports for the Market.
• Any Pop need: imports whatever the Market’s population is currently missing.
• Any construction need: imports whatever ongoing constructions in the Market need.

Involvement level 3: full control

At the top of the ladder, every Trade Order can be edited in full detail. The confirmed options are a minimum acceptable profit, the target Markets, and a prioritization focus of Profit, Food, or fixing existing shortages.

Target Markets can be set manually, or with dynamic designations like “All Owned Markets” or “All Colonial Markets” that update automatically as your territory changes, so a preset aimed at colonies keeps working as you expand.

Quality-of-life extras round out the manual tier. Trade Orders can be pinned to the Outliner for quick access, and hovering a pinned Order shows its trade routes directly on the map. Right-clicking any Good icon opens a context menu that can start a Trade Order or set Tariffs straight from the map.

Tariffs and Subventions: taxing foreign trade

Tariffs are a separate tool from Trade Orders, and the distinction matters. Trade Orders manipulate your own country’s trade. Tariffs manipulate foreign trade happening inside your own Markets, and they double as a revenue source.

Market Owners can set a Tariff on any Good. An Export Tariff makes foreign traders pay a premium to export that Good out of the Market, which disincentivizes foreign exports of it. A negative Tariff, called a Subvention, instead lowers the price and incentivizes exports. The same export/import split and the same premium-versus-Subvention logic apply separately to Imports.

The maximum Tariff level an Owner can set depends on several factors: Advances, Laws, and where the country sits on the Free Trade versus Mercantilism Societal Value axis. Tariffs also carry real diplomatic consequences, with an opinion impact that scales with trade volume, so they are a lever with foreign policy attached rather than a free money button. A new “Lift Tariff” diplomatic interaction exists as a shortcut in the Market panel for exactly that reason.

Promote Industry and Urban Rights: production specialization

Promote Industry is a new national-level action that specializes a country’s production in a specific industry. It is applied at the Area level, and it does two things at once: every Location inside that Area gets a Productivity boost for the selected industry, and national demand for that Good rises among your own population. The demand half matters because it keeps prices and building profitability healthy even as your production scales up, instead of flooding your own market and slashing margins.

Slots are limited and scale with rank: one by default for any country, two for Kingdoms, and three for Empires. The developers note it works best combined with Town Rights, RGO bonuses, and location-specific modifiers.

The same diary introduces the early versions of specialization Urban Rights. Nine of them are available from game start and upgrade later to their Age of Discovery versions. The diary itself says these values are not final, so treat them as the current draft:

• Tooling Charter: +15% tools output
• Jewelry Charter: +10% jewelry, +5 jewelry guild building levels
• Naval Supplies Charter: +15% naval supplies and tar output
• Textile Charter: +10% cloth, fine cloth, and dyes
• Weaponry Charter: +10% weaponry, firearms, and cannons
• Printing Charter: +10% paper, books, and dyes
• Artisan Charter: +10% furniture, pottery, and leather
• Spirituous Charter: +10% liquor, beer, and wine
• Masonry Charter: +12% masonry and glass

Two further rights go beyond the specialization list: Market Charter grants +10% Market Access, +3 Marketplace levels, and +25% Burghers Trade Capacity, while Staple Port grants +50% Burghers power, +10% Maritime Presence, +5 Marketplace levels, and +20% Harbor Capacity. The Marketplace building-level bonus now also applies to the whole Marketplace building chain rather than only the base building.

The rest of the confirmed economy changes

The diary closes out with a batch of smaller confirmed changes, all of it still preview material:

• A new “Default on Creditor” action repudiates every loan held by a chosen lender, at a cost to creditworthiness and to diplomatic opinion with all lenders, and the former creditor gains a Casus Belli against the defaulting country.
• Manufactories become more pop-efficient, and textile mills now reach the mill output curve.
• All 21 Absolutism-era manufactory advances get discounted: 16 industry-entry unlocks at 50% off and 5 same-industry follow-on advances at 75% off, bringing them in line with the Revolutions-era mills.
• Coal output advances are buffed from +33% to +75% in the Absolutism era and from +50% to +100% in the Revolutions era, aimed at stopping tier-3-and-above heavy industry from starving on coal.
• The Free Trade societal-value push is now scaled by how many foreign Markets have Merchants present.
• Markets that only have temporary demand can now be destroyed, shifting that demand to a new center.
• RGO initial level now accounts for Tribesmen and Slaves, not only Peasants.
• Foreign building pops are now sourced from the capital’s surrounding Area rather than only the capital Location itself.

For context on how EU4 handled tariffs, trade power, and merchant steering, the site’s EU4 merchant and trade steering guide covers the older system that EU5’s is not trying to be.

What the next diary covers

The diary that follows this one is confirmed to cover Crusades and Jihads, Cardinals, and Religious Orders, including a sneak peek of related “Across the Pillars” DLC content, presented by a diary author referred to as “Pavía.” The exact mechanics have not been shown yet, so there is nothing to preview here beyond that framing. When it lands, the Río Salado hub will update with whatever is actually confirmed, and this article will follow if the new systems so much as touch the economy.