I've been making a production table to help me plan my chains, and I've stumbled upon something weird. Whale oil (not lamp oil) costs 23.33 gold per ton to manufacture (1 whaler makes 3 tons per minute and costs 70 gold), but if I set a warehouse to buy it from the free trader, it costs about 16 gold per ton. This is the only good in the game that costs more to manufacture than to buy.

First off, if anyone else has the game installed, could you check if the price is the same for you? Maybe my install went wrong.

And if it's the same for everyone, is this an oversight by the devs or was it specifically left like that for a reason?

Or did I just do the math wrong?


For comparison, I'll post my table with the production and trade prices of almost everything else:

good (prod/m, maint/m, [inputs]) - cost per ton/[cost per ton with imported inputs], ~ highest import price*, ~ lowest export price* ----tiles taken, ~ difference between production cost and import price divided by tiles (i.e. how much money you're saving per tile by not importing)
* These are taken from setting imports and exports at the player's own warehouses

timber (3t, 5m) - 1.66, 6, 6 ----45 tiles, 0.3/tile
bricks (3t, 20m) - 6.66, 14, 12
marble (3t, 50m) - 16.66, 23, 20

[tools, weapons, cannons not done yet]

horses (2t, 25m) - 12.5, 17, 15 ----69 tiles, 0.13/tile

hunting (1t, 10m) - 10, 17, 15 ----69 tiles, 0.1/tile

cattle (1.5t, 10m) - 6.66, 11, 9 ----45 tiles, 0.15/tile
meat (3t, 10m, 3 cattle) - 10/14.33, 17, 15

grain (3t, 5m) - 1.66, 4, 4 ----25 tiles, 0.3/tile
flour (3t, 10m, 6 grain) - 6.66/11.33, 12, 10
bread (6t, 10m, 6 flour) - 8.33/13/13.66, 17, 15

wool (2t, 5m) - 2.5, 5, 5 ----45 tiles, 0.1/tile
cloth (2t, 15m, 4 wool) - 12.5/17.5, 19, 17 \\\\ 9.3/13 with loom

hops/cane (2t, 25m) - 12.5, 17, 15 ----45 tiles, 0.2/tile
alcohol (2t, 15m, 4 hops/cane) - 32.5/41.5, 47, 39

tobacco (2t, 25m) - 12.5, 24, 21 ----45 tiles, 0.5/tile
cigars (2t, 15m, 4 tobacco) - 32.5/55.5, 58, 49

cocoa (2t, 25m) - 12.5, 23, 20 ----45 tiles, 0.45/tile
honey (2t, 25m) - 12.5, 18, 16 ----25 tiles, 0.45/tile
chocolate (2t, 15m, 4 cocoa, 4 honey) - 57.5/89.5, 113, 93

whale oil (3t, 70m) - 23.33, 16, 14 <<---- this one stands out
lamp oil (2t, 50m, 1 whale oil) - 36.66/33, 48, 42

ambergris (2t, 30m, 1 whale oil) - 26.66/23, 63, 55
flowers (2t, 25m) - 12.5, 19, 17 ----45 tiles, 0.3/tile
perfume (2t, 50m, 1 ambergris, 4 flowers) - 63.33/[not done yet], 100, 88

gold (2t, 100m) - 50, 78, 68
gems (2t, 100m) - 50, 75, 64
jewels (2t, 40m, 1 gold, 1 gems) - 70/96.5, 141, 120


Also note that ambergris is unusually profitable to export, even more so than the perfume that's made out of it.