No matter what type of lord you want to be in Manor Lords, you will need to play nice early on. You will only have access to so many materials and resources in your village's early stages, so trading is essential for not only upgrading and advancing, but also keeping your loyal population happy. To sustain yourself in the early years, trading will grant you access to much-needed support, as well as a great source of income if you have a surplus of materials to sell. To make sure your storehouses are well-stocked, you will need to learn how to set up a profitable trade operation.
How to trade
Since Manor Lords is a single-player-only game, you will need to find a way to trade with the game's NPCs. They are more than willing to exchange goods, but not until you build some specific structures.
Step 1: Start a game and begin gathering resources. You can build any of the trading buildings immediately, but you should wait until you first establish the necessities.
Step 2: Build either a Trading Post, Livestock Trading Post, or Pack Station located in the Trade tab of the building menu. Each one offers a different form of trading, with the Trading Post being the one you should start with.
Trading Post: Allows you to trade with NPCs in the region for all goods. Livestock Trading Post: Allows you to trade with NPCs for livestock. Pack Station: allows you to trade all goods between two different regions under your control. This should be saved until you have taken control of at least two regions.
Step 3: Assign a family to run it, and select what goods you want to buy and sell, and in what increments.