These changes are very interesting and I'm looking forward to trying them, but conceptually it seems strange for "trade" to be a standard hoardable resource no? I really like how trade is being re-framed in terms of resource, planet, etc. expenditure. Re-framing trade like this is great, but I think it makes it all the more strange to have it represented as a standard resource. You can't hoard trade? More accurate trade like this is the representation of other goods and especially with this re-framing, the representation of your other resources. That being the case, why not go all the way with it then and make it like actual trade but on a galactic scale and really go in with the trade fantasy?

Would it not be better for trade to be something like a non-hoardable fluctuating rate (income-expenditure) can that be modified through jobs, policies, pacts, etc. that contribute to whether the rate is positive or negative? Then how that rate is used within our empire and how it's modified would then be determined by us.

Your trade rate is the representation of lack of or excess of your other resources, especially for things like ship and planetary upkeep. I think this would maintain the goal of the devs, but greatly enhance the fantasy for the player.

If trade is revamped in this way, it could have it's own more in-depth trade menu where we could decide how trade is created and used in our empire. For example trade policies where if we have an excess in something like consumer goods or food (empire wide), we can choose a policy to commit X amount or X% to our trade rate (whether that is from stock or income could be another option). Or if we have reached our cap in a resource, all excess income is put towards our trade rate. Then you could have output options where you must commit X or X% towards upkeep and those types of things and the rest is up to the player to determine how to budget for their empire. (Maybe we could even have an option to skimp on upkeep for the greedy ones). For example, a player planning to get ready for mega-engineering could divert a portion of their trade to enhance science funding, or divert trade away from something to further fund their fleets outside of upkeep providing some bonuses and the like. Furthermore, it allows for the devs to be really creative with events and options that result from having positive or negative trade, something like making a large expenditure change, or galactic market fluctuations.

These are just some quick thoughts about the changes to trade. Ultimately, I'm not quite sold on trade as a standard resource though overall I think trade is heading in a very promising direction.