Market (Age of Empires)

The Market is an economic building in Age of Empires that features the ability to pay tributes to other players, and provides the ability to research many useful upgrades that benefit the economy of a civilization. Most of these technologies found in this building increase the rate of resource collecting as well as ones that improve the food quantities of Farms. The Wheel is considered by some as the most useful upgrade since it makes Villagers move and collect resource faster as well as enabling the development of Chariot units.

Upgrades Edit

Tool Age Edit

• Woodworking - Increases Villager gathering rate of Wood and the range of archers
• Stone Mining - Increases Villager gathering rate of Stone
• Gold Mining - Increases Villager gathering rate of Gold
• Domestication - Increases Farm capacity of Food

Bronze Age Edit

• Artisanship - Increases Villager gathering rate of Wood and the range of archers
• Wheel - Increases Villager speed and enables Chariot units from Archery Range and Stable
• Plow - Increases Farm capacity of Food

Iron Age Edit

• Craftsmanship - Increases Villager gathering rate of Wood and the range of archers
• Siegecraft - Allows Villagers to ignore building armor
• Coinage - Increases more Gold productivity and also makes market tributes free
• Irrigation - Increases Farm capacity of Food

History Edit

"The specialization made possible by the development of agriculture created the need for a place where craftsmen could meet to barter their wares for those of others and for food.  The Market in each town and village was the place where barter and exchange took place.  The development of the Market marked the change from the small hunting/ foraging group that shared its harvest to the much more complex economy that rose with the rise of towns and cities.  Specialization resulted in efficiencies of scale and greater overall production fairly among the food providers  and specialists.  The profit motive spurred innovation to increase production.  The potter, for example, looked for ways to make more and better pots for the same effort to increase the amount of food that he could obtain by trading pots."

—Age of Empires manual