Civilization 5 Commerce Social Policies
Strategy Guide for Gods and Kings & Brave New World
| Tradition | Liberty | Honor | Piety | Patronage | Aesthetics | Commerce | Exploration | Rationalism |
Commerce is first available in the Medieval Era and benefits Civs of all kinds. It's not for anyone in particular, but does Synergize really well with Patronage or Honor. Every Civ needs gold, and this one will boost it immensely if you finish off the tree, plus you'll make your empire happier. I consider this tree to be essential to any wide play because of the cost reduction on roads and rails, along with all the Happiness you'll get when all Luxuries are boosted by +2 each.
Commerce is also great in that Adopting it no longer increases Gold output in the Capital by 25%, but also unlocks Big Ben, one of the best Wonders in my opinion. It gives a flat Gold bonus, along with -15% purchasing costs in Cities. This, plus Mercantilism gives you a 40% discount on all purchases, bring that 1k Gold Windmill down to an affordable 600 Gold. Commerce is one of my favorite trees and I use it at least a little in most games. If happiness is clearly a future problem, I would definitely max it out to allow my Cities to continue to grow, or for the Puppeting of more Cities for my War efforts.
The Commerce Finisher is to allow the purchase of Great Merchants with Faith starting in the Industrial Era. The better bonus is that every Trading Post will give +1 extra Gold, which is excellent if you have a large Puppet-empire acquired through conquest. Rationalism will give them +1 Science, and Technology eventually gives them another +1 Gold. Your Trading posts will deliver a whopping +3 Gold, +1 Science, which is massive when added in with the multipliers from Markets, Banks, and Stock Exchanges. Plan ahead and start using these with your Workers as soon as they're available.
Wagon Trains: +2 Gold from all your land Trade Routes. Maintenance paid on Roads and Railroads reduced by 50%.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: The +2 Gold from Land Trade Routes is great, but not that impressive given the best are from sea and +2 Gold is not much with only 8 Trade Route Slots available. The best part of this is the reduction in maintenance on those roads, which will save you tons with a large empire. This is one of the reasons I consider Commerce essential to the wide, sprawling empire. All that military upkeep and roads will eat into your Civ's GPT badly.
Mercenary Army: Allows the purchasing of Landsknechts.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: The Landsknecht gets double gold while pillaging Cities, and is otherwise very similar to a Pikeman. Just one of these guys, kept safe, can help pay for himself two-three times over, for they cost only 160 Gold before any discounts. Otherwise, taking on this Policy lets you raise a Military very quickly. They will upgrade to Lancers, Anti-tank guns, and later Helicopter Gunships. Keep them as Anti-Tank Guns in the Late-game, if you want to keep the capture bonus, as Helicopter Gunships cannot take Cities.
Entrepreneurship: Great Merchants are earned 25% faster. Receive double Gold from Great Merchant trade missions.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: This is a simple enough Policy and doesn't need much description. Great Merchants are great, and I always use them for Trade Missions (almost). Use them to shore up a weak ally and get +30 Influence, but a whopping 1200 Gold.
Mercantilism: Purchasing items in Cities requires 25% less Gold. +1 Science from every Mint, Market, Bank, and Stock Exchange.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: 25% cheaper purchasing, along with all these Gold bonuses, can really help your Cities catch up. This affects military units, everything, and will save you loads of Gold in the late-game that could be used for upgrading your Military or buying off City-State allies. Literally every City in your empire should eventually have at least the Market, Bank, and Stock Exchange, along with a few trading posts nearby to further boost this, so the extra Science is a nice addon.
Protectionism: +2 Happiness from each Luxury resource.
Tips and Strategies for this Policy: Probably the best Policy here. I've had my Civ's happiness jump all the way up to 70 with this, which may be no feat to some, but it was a very wide Empire and it allowed for a lot of growth. I love this, and that it takes every Policy in this tree to get it is entirely appropriate for how powerful a bonus it is.
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