[quote=TheSovereignGrave]
I think all the trade talk is a bit strange. Do all of your nations' rulers control who trades what and to who?
[/quote]

It's really simple if you're trading 1 to 1. You just give one thing you have for something you want. It's more complex if your connecting the trade for 1+ nations. A example is, you want to trade with nation A but you don't have anything it wants so you trade with nation B to get the thing nation A wanted and you give that thing to nation A