Merchant gameplay bug?

[Dirt_Dolphin1337]

So, I've played this mod a bit on the original engine and recently bought the Maelstrom engine for a more stable experience.
I'm not sure if I'm just bad at the game or if this bug has existed for a long time, but whenever I try to do some merchant running for myself, I can never create a profit margin buying exports from colonies and selling them at other colonies where they're imported. It is always more expensive to buy and I get less back when selling.
I've had this issue today with my character with 7 commerce, which according to the manual should give me 35%~ better prices, but for the life of me, I cannot make a profitable trade.
Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug in the system?

 

[Grey Roger]

If you start as a Merchant character, you should have a Merchant Licence which will help. You'll also want to get the trading perks "Basic Commerce", "Advanced Commerce", and for preference also "Trustworthy". The first two should improve your profits, while "Trustworthy" allows you to trade in goods which would normally be contraband - you can sell it at the store instead of having to smuggle it.

Otherwise, instead of buying and selling goods, ask the storekeeper if he has anything for you to deliver. Provided you're not hostile to his nation, and provided you have enough cargo space free, you may find that delivering cargo for the storekeeper is more profitable than buying and selling goods yourself.

 

[Dirt_Dolphin1337]

If you start as a Merchant character, you should have a Merchant Licence which will help. You'll also want to get the trading perks "Basic Commerce", "Advanced Commerce", and for preference also "Trustworthy". The first two should improve your profits, while "Trustworthy" allows you to trade in goods which would normally be contraband - you can sell it at the store instead of having to smuggle it.

Otherwise, instead of buying and selling goods, ask the storekeeper if he has anything for you to deliver. Provided you're not hostile to his nation, and provided you have enough cargo space free, you may find that delivering cargo for the storekeeper is more profitable than buying and selling goods yourself.

Merchant license is news to me, does that also affect buying and selling prices?
I have been running cargo for storekeepers to get my starting capital as well as got basic commerce and 10 commerce in the meantime but I still can't get a positive return on investment. I have yet to get advanced commerce will look to see if that allows me to make a profit.

I have tested running goods in the storm engine just now and got profit with a new character selling gold from Speighstown in Sao Jorge.

Also noticed that some colonies that import certain goods have lower buy prices for said imports than others that export that same product, making me believe it may actually be a bug.

Any advice as to where I should look to change config files so I can maybe fix this myself?