In Europa Universalis II, the center of trade screen is a display showing information about a particular center of trade (abbreviated: CoT): the value of the its trade, which countries are trading there, and how much monthly income they are earning.
The center of trade screen displays the following information:
- The name of the province where the CoT is, twice, at the top of the screen. In the example, the CoT is in Tlaxcala.
- The total generated trade that is conglomerated at this CoT, in ducats. In the example, Tlaxcala gets 536d of trade per year. You can see the breakdown by province on the tooltip you get if you hover over this number.
- The country which owns the province the CoT is in. In the example, Spain owns the CoT.
- The total trade your country is earning at this CoT, displayed under the yearly total number. In the example, the country being played is England; England is earning 343d per year in Tlaxcala.
- The number of merchants that countries have in this CoT. Countries with no merchants are not shown; each country with one or more merchants present has its coat of arms displayed. There are six rows in the screen. The more merchants a country has present, the higher its coat of arms is displayed. In the example, France and the Netherlands both have one merchant present. Spain has four, and Britain has six (thus, Britain controls the monopoly in Tlaxcala).
- Via tooltip, the exact amount being earned by each country at this CoT. You can mouse over each country's coat of arms to get the tooltip with this information. Note that the country's current trade efficiency is among the information displayed.
- Whether you have autosending of merchants on. If you can, the circular button is selected.
- Whether you can currently send a merchant to this CoT. If you can, the "Place Merchant" button is lit up. Otherwise it's grey, and mousing over the button will tell you why you can't.
The center of trade screen offers you the following actions:
- To turn on autosending of merchants, for all CoTs. (Don't do this; it's a total lose.)
- To close the screen and leave trading map mode, via the "Back to Main" button.
- To send a merchant, by clicking the "Place Merchant" button.