Manor Lords: How to make money

How to get money in Manor Lords is a bit more complicated than you might think. Manor Lords’ economy has several layers, and the money your people earn isn’t necessarily your money – until you take it from them, that is.

Our Manor Lords money guide explains how to make money, including ways to increase regional wealth and how to implement taxes.

Manor Lords: How to make money

Manor Lords has two types of money. The most important one – and the easiest to accrue – is regional wealth. You, or, more accurately, your villagers, make regional wealth money by selling goods they produce at the local trading post. Those goods can be anything from excess lumber to wool, honey, meat – basically any building or survival material.

Unlike the market, which brings in no money, you have to establish trade routes and manage how much of each item you want to export. Trade routes cost money to start, but some goods such as timber, food, and stone, don’t require trade routes. Focus on those first.

Best goods to sell in Manor Lords

Berries are your best early source of regional wealth, especially if you pick the development point that increases how many berries grow in a deposit. One or two forager huts are enough to get you plenty of food to survive the winter, so you can set the desired surplus to anywhere between 20 and 50, depending on how much of a cushion you want for yourself. Anything above that surplus gets sold and increases your regional wealth.

Selling stone is another easy, risk-free way to make money, though you earn less for it than you do for berries. Regions have at least one stone deposit, and since most construction projects don’t require stone – or not much of it, anyway – you’re free to sell as much of it as you want without running unto problems later.

How to get Manor Lords treasury money

The treasury is your personal fund, from which you can spend to buy mercenaries or outfit your lordly retinue, among other things. It starts at zero, and the only way as of the early access launch version to fill it is by taxing your citizens. Diplomacy seemingly can fill your coffers as well, though there’s no way to do that just yet.

Taxes reduce your people’s approval rating, but as we said in our Manor Lords beginner guide, they’re a necessary evil, especially if you have expansion on the brain. Build a manor, and click on it to open the tax menu. Make sure to set a reasonable tax level so your approval doesn’t plummet, and implement a tithe while you’re there to boost your influence.

For more Manor Lords help, check out our guide for how to raise your settlement level and recommendations for what to build first in the strategy game.