The number of Goods that can be selected for Trade is determined by the type of Warehouse. Passive trading is done by placing Import and Export Goods in the Trading place section of a Warehouse. Note: There is an Economy Achievement that requires the player to 'Achieve the city status of Metropolis without ever placing any goods to trade in your warehouses.' This means no Passive trading is allowed to attain the Achievement. In the Venice add-on this was changed to also work for Passive trading, so there is no benefit there. Note: In the base game, Lord Northburgh and Grand vizier Al Zahir will only reward Honour for Active trading, making Active sales more appealing for generating Honour. Selling excess Goods is always more profitable than allowing Production buildings to stall, though it is still less profitable than exporting them through Passive trade. Adding an additional waypoint to a Trading route where all leftover Goods are sold ensures your Warehouses don't fill up with excess Goods. The most common reason for Active selling is to dump excess Goods, either directly from your Warehouse or from Trading routes. Setting up Glass production is slow, so it might be advantageous to buy the required Glass from Lord Northburgh and rush the construction of the Keep, especially against aggressive Opponents. The Keep is unlocked at 510 Patricians, and requires 5 tons of Glass to build. The two most obvious examples of this include buying Tools at the start of the game, and buying Glass to build a Keep. Active buying should really only be used to import Goods that you cannot or are not producing yet. The main difference between Active and Passive trading is that Active trading is done at the ports and harbours of others.

Anno 1404 building ships