Best Economy

[beeman5]

I start with farms and about 2 logging camps also.

I only mess with tourists if I am going with the US. Right now I am trying to stay neutral which is turning out pretty good considering it is the first time I have not picked a side...

[Junta_Joe]

One overlooked strategy is minimal tourism.

Just a hotel or two and a beach site.

Tourism is paid monthly and has a stabilizing influence on the money flow.  A minor tourism industry will keep maintenance costs and wages from depleting a treasury while waiting for your big industry to kick in.

Early treasury deficits tend to delay your strategy for years.  A hotel stops this.  It's the same reason people like logging.  Logging doesn't make a lot of money except on a huge scale.  But the frequent loads keep the treasury from nose diving.  Same with a single hotel and without the mess or teamsters.

It makes a great initial building before you turn your focus to your primary goal.

[Kempo Joe]

I started using Joe's strat and it works.
The only bad thing about it is that it takes alot of capital to get started and logging doesn't

[Black_eagle120]

i normally use a planed approach, day 1 i pause game and look at the crop conditions for the three major money crops, tobacco, coffee, and sugar, this detrimines my second industry (yes second) then i look at mineral conditions for gold (if a gold mine is close to my main town i'll mine it)  my first industry is the saw mill (for logging), then my second industry is the one that coinsides with the crop that is best grown( i.e a cigar factory for tobacco, a rum distillary for sugar, and a cannary for coffee) ,then tourism (with the profits from the saw mill and the second industry you can jump start tourism) also if there is gold near your main town build a jewlriey factory (correct my spelling if necessary) last.
withthis you should have lot of cash coming in and satisfied the capitalists.

[andrergs]

 Well it is correct to say that every industry is profitable and that you must look at what the island gives and that you can take, that is very true.

  Tourism is special because it can work under ANY circumstances. Example, If the crime is high, build it far away, or add tons of police. It does not require and form of raw materials and best of all if you've be practicing enough, you can make $5000 in Profits not revenue, by the 1st year!! Isn't that amazing? Now you tell me if your logging camps can do that or any other form of manufacturing industry...

 TOURISM RULZ ALL  

If you plan it well, I think it may be able to turn in that much money that fast... or at least let the goods waiting in the port for the second year. Well, I'll give it a try, see if I can prove you wrong.

[Mr.P]

I also use the same method as Egg, and have a small tourist base set up immediately, with a hotel, beach resort and pub.

This gives me the regular income I need to keep the island afloat, whilst the farmers harvest the crops over the first few years.

There is nothing more annoying that spending your first $10,000 and waiting 2 years before the first exports, which usually only reduce the amount by which you are in the red.

Throw in gold however, and your are rich beyond your wildest dreams.

[Black_eagle120]

I normally use farming and lumber to kick start my economy 4-5 lumber camps 2-3 farms (which crop (Tobbaco, sugar, coffiee, or pineapples) suits me best(plus the 2 farms i put from the beginning(which takes me back to the chain of command strat, but i'll talk about that later) then sawmill and what ever other factory the corisponding crop is, while this is happining i'll start tourism slowly cheap hotels and bungalows, then to hotels, and a airport and luxury hotels (when i get electicity hooked up),

ok i said ill talk about the chain of command:  This is a secoin from a faq from http://www.gamefaqs.com.

Note that coffee grows on high ground and requires good drainage.  Note that
pineapples grow on somewhat lower ground and require good drainage.  Note that
sugar likes to grow on floodplains and in basins.  See the connection?  If you
have a hillside and you can pretty-well predict which way the water's going to
run off (check the weather pattern to see where the "windward" side of the
island is, because rain's going to run down that hill when it falls), put your
coffee farm near the top of the hill, your pineapple grove on the next lower
terrace that your construction workers will create, and your sugar plantation
down by the sea.  That way, you'll get the best possible production out of all
three farming areas, and if you terrace along the windward side of the island,
you could have a creatively produced, economically monstrous farming machine.
Put your industries on the leeward side of the island, and the teamster's
offices somewhere easily accessible to both sides, run a road over or around
the mountain, and you've got a distribution network that will be a source of
tremendous revenue.  Having a dock near the industries is a plus as well...I'd
even go so far as to say you should build one (and an accompanying teamster
office) once you've got the whole thing running at or slightly ahead of
capacity.

this is from http://www.gamefaq.com's FAQ:
TROPICO
Señor Fox's Only Strategy Guide You'll Ever Need"
By Dennis L. "Fox" Doucette                              
(rocketshow@hotmail.com)                
Version 1.0
December 29, 2001
The guide is at http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/tropico_a.txt

Cya

[Coconut Kid]

I would say that it [What type of economy is the most profitable?] depends on your presidential character traits and flaws, the type of island you have, and the overall goal you have in mind. ...

It's a hard question to answer with a short "Do this, and you'll win every time." ...

Although he spent a lot of time just making vacuous posts to run-up his total so he could be "postmaster general", he knew the game and how to play it. But I have to fault him for getting the three critical issues in reverse order.

Someone could have made this game into an even bigger winner if they had done so.

When you set out to play a random map\game, do you have a story-line in mind? Perhaps it could be asked as, do you have a role to play and place to play it? Or are you just wandering out to be sucked-up by "whatever" happens today -- so long as it doesn't take too long? My word, the PopTop folks gave you a very brief story-line. At least you could add to that. Oh, I see! In grade and high school, you just hated to do 'creative writing' because you could not write about seeing and feeling the opposite (or maybe not so opposite) gender's genitals. You could write about what you would like to eat other than the lunch 'mystery meat' - but that was no fun because it required no imagination.

Now we know. Either you haven't matured past the imagining genitals stage, or you are a veteran of the "break the game" brigade. Since it isn't spelled out in large print, it's hard to understand that the first step in a really enjoyable gameplay experience is becoming absorbed in the game world by thinking about what you wish to do there.

Having thought about it, you need to consider all the game set-up options in the order they are presented to you. The physical character of the island is a lot more important than the character of El Presidente. Sorry Eddie, but please think about it.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=5449.msg212896#msg212896

Now you can go on to roll all the dies to create the character you are going to role-play just like the good old high school dungeons & dragons days.