At the beginning of the game your country’s trade balance depends on the value of what you sell minus the expense of what you buy. Often it can be a good idea to buy more than you sell to help your economy get off to a fast start. Eventually, as your cash is depleted, you need to make money. The most obvious method is to sell more of your materials, but there are two alternatives.
Your Empire can receive overseas profits only by using a merchant unit and buying land in a Neutral State or Tribe. Once the merchant buys the land it can be developed by builders and connected by engineers. The commodities will be offered for sale by the other country each turn. Often, you may choose to buy these resources yourself. Of course you have to pay for them, but after this cost is deducted, the other country returns to you a percentage of the sale price based on the strength of the diplomatic relationship between the two countries. You make more money when some other country buys the products your units developed. In this case the Neutral state passes part of the profits collected from the buyer directly to your coffers. All the profits returned to your Empire from foreign lands you develop are reported on the deal book balance sheet as overseas profits.
Liquidated riches refers to spices, silver, gold, gems and diamonds--either purchased from a tribe, or transported from New World land you conquer. These riches do not need to be resold or produced into anything else. As soon as they reach your capital city they convert immediately to cash. The amount is reported on the deal book balance sheet each turn.
