I've started playing the game for real only after the update, and find it quite easy to make money through caravans, trade and merchant banks. Sometimes I make over 5000 per run, and the biggest one was about 8000. But it is clear to me that you can't earn as much as in previous versions, these old stories look like fairy tales now. What helps me with caravans and trading is the base price list, which I put at the end of this post, I always buy when the price is below (usually much below, like max.50%) and try to sell when it is higher. There are exceptions, like vodka, which is hard to sell above base price, but fortunately it can be bought cheaply.
1. Caravans - you can send 5, 10, 15 or 20 items only. If the store (goods merchant) has 14 items, you will be able to send 5 or 10. But you can sell him one item, even partially consumed, and then you will be able to send 15 of them. It also lowers the price of buying, so increases you profit. May be worth doing especially with items costing more, like furs or shag. Sending caravan increases the price of leftover items, but sometimes it is still profitable to buy them. Caravans can be sent to cities only, but can be sent from fortresses/castles too. So to sell something in the later you have to do it manually.
2. If you are OK with little cheating, you can save the game, assess the prices, and reload, which will save you some time. If you don't like cheating, you may simply not reload. That way you will know where to send caravan. You need Trade at 4 or so for it to be really useful. Also re-assessing may give you better routes. Sometimes you know actual prices in other cities (they are visible in the list of destinations) and some of them may be better than these assessed. But usually aren't.
Choose the route which gives you most profit, often the one with the most items in stock, not the biggest profit per unit.
3. Some cities can have especially cheap items, like Beer under 15-20 (often in Warsaw), Smoked Fish under 20 (often in Reval or near it), or Pottery under 15 (in Bakhchisaray). Some other good high volume items are dried meat, bread and flour. Then you can have a huge profit in terms of percentage, like when you buy 20 pottery for 11, and sell it for 120. This is good if you don't have enough money for start, or if you often deposit it in the merchant guide. But the most shining item is Powder, which is best to trade personally (for some reason really good Powder routes don't show up on assessment list, maybe Trade skill is too low). Buy it when it is in 200-300 range (sometimes under 200), and sell when it is in 800-1000 range. I often sell it even under 800, because the profit is good enough. Cheap Powder cities/fortresses can be located very close to expensive Powder cities/fortresses and it seems a bit random, though often it is best to sell it in forts (not cities) or cities under siege, and buy somewhere south. But last time I found Powder under 200 in Warsaw which was under siege at the time.
4. Not caravan related - I was going to every fortress and city on the route, to the tavern, and fist fighting the guy. He can be fought six times before needing to rest. First time it is good to bet only 5 thalers, because some of these fighters are tough, and you won't be able to knock them out. But if you know the guy (who can look different between fights, but seems to be the same when it comes to prowess) and you know he can be beaten, then bet 25 thalers. Quite surprisingly you'll win 50 thalers, not 25. You always get double of what you betted. So six rounds give you up to 300 thalers. And 324 experience (50+4 per round). /And, which may be a bug and not always present, will increase your weapon proficiencies/. After some fights (and some levels) you will be able to fight anybody, but they start to refuse fighting. But you will be tired of it anyway.
5. Some quest give more cash and fun than others, like ransomed girl quest (it's easy and you keep the ransom money), but some other are unsafe, like looters quest. In the looters quest you can get some money for every looter band (both violet and gray colored) you killed before turning to the mayor, so it may seem a good idea to kill as many as you can and get to him late. But if the city is under siege, the mayor will hide in a rat hole, and you'll fail the quest, upset your companions and stay without money… And sieges can last weeks.
Base prices, as of 1.143, Steam version:
Apples 44
Beef 80
Beer 120? (it is similar to vodka, you can sometimes buy it as low as 11, but it is rather hard to find a place to sell it above the base price)
Bread 50
Butter 150
Cabbages 30
Cheese 75
Chicken 95
Date Fruit 120
Dried Meat 85
Dyes 200
Flax 150
Flour 85
Furs 391
Grapes 75
Hemp 125
Hides 120
Honey 220
Iron 264
Leatherwork 220
Linen 250
Oil 450
Olives 100
Pork 75
Pottery 100
Powder 400
Salt 255
Sausages 85
Shag 400
Silk 600
Smoked Fish 65
Spice 880
Tools 410
Velvet 1025
Vodka 350
Wheat 30
Wine 220
Wool Cloth 250
Wool 130
. You still have some potential there. But for velvet, spices and powder don't bother witch caravans, trade those yourself. Velvet and spices can be sold in richer villages even near to the town where you bought them, and Powder in most fortresses/castles that do not have any. Caravans still work great for cheap wares that you want to send in masses.
