States of Power Economy Guide

The Three Pillars of Your Economy

Every nation in States of Power runs on three economic pillars: construction, goods production, and military manufacturing. Construction expands your infrastructure and factory count. Goods production generates revenue through trade. Military manufacturing equips your divisions and determines whether your army fights with rifles or with sticks.

Balancing these three is the central economic challenge of the game. Investing too heavily in military factories early leaves you unable to sustain your war machine. Over-investing in civilian goods while your army goes underequipped invites defeat.

Goods Factories vs Civilian Cities

The market access percentage is the critical variable that determines which type of construction is more profitable. Market access measures how efficiently your produced goods flow to buyers. When market access exceeds 65 percent — which it should in most well-developed nations — goods factories outperform civilian cities in revenue generation.

At 100 percent market access, a goods factory recoups its construction cost in approximately 1,000 in-game days. A civilian city at the same access level is profitable but generates less total income over the same period. The practical implication is simple: build goods factories first in every province with decent infrastructure, then add civilian cities as a secondary layer.

The Upgrade Chain

The goods production economy follows a three-tier upgrade path. The base structure is the Market, which provides modest income and improves market access. Upgrading Market to Goods unlocks the factory production chain. Upgrading Goods to Research generates research points alongside income, accelerating your technology progression.

The optimal early-game upgrade sequence is Market greater than Goods greater than Research. Research upgrades too early can strain your construction capacity before you have the income to support advanced facilities.

Loans and World Market Trading

States of Power allows you to take loans and trade on the world market. Taking a loan during peacetime to accelerate industrial construction is often a sound strategy — the interest payments are manageable if your economy is growing. However, going into debt during wartime is dangerous because military spending spikes while your income simultaneously becomes less reliable as provinces change hands.

World market trading lets you buy and sell commodities at dynamic prices. If you are short on a critical resource, purchasing from the world market can be faster than domestic production — but prices fluctuate, and buying at a market peak can cripple your treasury.

Managing Military Supply and Manpower

Your military factories consume two invisible resources: military supply and manpower. Supply represents equipment — rifles, artillery shells, fuel, and ammunition. Manpower represents the soldiers available to fill division templates. Both are consumed continuously while divisions are active.

A division engaged in combat consumes roughly three times the supply of a stationary division. Plan your offensive campaigns to be decisive and short rather than prolonged attritional slogs that drain both equipment and manpower simultaneously.