panther29 said: Genoa(trade node) shouldn't be the richest. Thats a huge buff to Genoa(country) that was starting to fail at that time. Click to expand...

I keep reading in threads that Genoa by 1444 was well into decline and would not recover.I don't know where you guys get your historical knowledge from, but Genoa, after a disastrous 50 years during the Italian Wars and suffering from the competition of Venice, saw the re-establishment of the Republic at the hands of admiral Andrea Doria and experienced, for about 100 years, between 1550 and 1650, a golden age that Fernand Braudel called "the age of the Genoese". It became a financial center and until the peace of Munster in 1648 it benefited greatly from being allied with Spain, to the point that is esteemed that most of the silver mined in America would end in Genoa.Genoese decline, if anything, happened later, with Spain's decline, and it was slow (it remained still a very important trading hub).