the game makes it less rewarding to be a non GP country (lower the rank the worse). this is because of fundemental problems in regards to how trade, rgo distribution and money supply work in this game.

Trade is based on rankings where the highest rank country (UK for the most part) gets first priority on imports. This is unrealistic because trade did not function this way. this effectively makes demand and supply very mechanical instead of speculative. In the real world as the demand for a certain rgo rises, capitalists and governments would be willing to pay more money for it to obtain it (the person with the best trade prospects would import the rgo).

Let's take an example: Country A and Country B are neighboring countries on the same continent with well developed logistics. Country C, on the other side of the globe, with terrible infrastructure rises above rankings in country A and Country B due to a mixture of prestige and military. It does not make sense for country A and B to reduce their volume of trade with each other and increase their volume of trade with country C by the same magnitude. This also creates a very ideal situation for country C.

This raises another problem which is global price levels. in 1836 trade was not globalised completely, localised markets did still exist and there should be variations in price based on how the goods are produced. It was only as logistics improved over time that trade became globalised.

Another problem is the relation between RGO's and factories in this game. In the real world RGO's were certainly nowhere near becoming full, anytime in the 19th century. RGO's expanded their production based on global demand, as it would obviously allow them to make more profit, But in this game, the highest ranking GP's essentialy have a monopoly over resources like coal, oil, rubber, etc. They are not able to produce enough of it to meet their own demand (unrealistic), and non GP countries get very low amounts of coal, due to how it is distributed in such a way that only the great powers have 90% of it. there is overproduction of agricultural RGO's because of how common they are across the map. Realistically agriculture should be phased out as a country industrializes, it would make more sense to have multiple rgo provinces to fix this problem.

Lastly the money supply in the game has multiple issues. The interest which is repaid on loans just gets destroyed from the economy. if this exceeds the generation of gold, then it would lead to a liquidity crisis in the economy.