DISCLAIMER: This guide is entirely the product of trial and error (as well as some historical knowledge). If my advice completely screws up your favourite save game, please don't come after me with a big stick.

It begins with politics. To industrialize your country, you need a proper ruling party, and that properness varies depending on the situation. Here's a breakdown of the various party economic plans, and what they're good for (aside from nothing):

State Capitalism:
Good For:
Startup Nations
Wee Little Countries
Countries with no Capitalists
Micromanagers
Countries whose capitalists have no capital

Interventionism:
Good For:
Countries who’s Factories Tend to Close
Countries with a Moderate Number of Insecure Capitalists
Countries whose Capitalists have little Capital

Leze Faire:
Good For:
Countries with a ♥♥♥♥-ton of Capitalists
Countries with a Stably good economy
Countries with ALOT of wealthy citizens
Countries who won't be mobilizing anytime soon
People who don't like to micromanage factories

Generally, the evolution of industry tends to proceed in this order. First, a player chooses State Capitalism, and builds a ridiculous number of factories. To continue this trend, the player needs some citizens with money, because the government will eventually want to spend its cash on things OTHER than building and subsidizing factories, like BUYING from factories, and conquering wee little African countries. The good news is: capitalists and factories are tied together like chickens and eggs: whichever one doesn't come first follows the other. In my recent game as France, I built fifty factories within a year, and immediately small Capitalists began to show up and invest in projects of their own, as well as in State controlled factories, taking the micromanagement out of my already busy hands.

From there, one usually proceeds to Interventionism. This form of economic management allows the player to keep a watchful eye on his Capitalists without making the operation of Capitalism prohibitively expensive. In this stage, the player will want to SUBSIZIZE ALL FACTORIES!!!!!! Because early industry is so precarious, and the economy so fickle, this mechanic will pay input costs to unprofitable factories so they don't close, allowing them to set the books straight and continue as usual.

Capitalists will breed like rabbits in this protected environment. Gradually, the economy will begin to stabilize, and if the player wishes, he/she can move on the Leze Faire (probably spelled wrong). This will take their governmental hands out of the economic arena, allowing them to focus on other things. It will also make factory building ALOT less expensive for the private citizen, allowing the existing infrastructure to grow exponentially. Of course, if there's a crash, you're screwed, but in the ideal scenario you can party hop all you wish: for scenarios where you can't... we'll discuss that later.

While you're building your economy, chicken or egg first, be sure to pay attention to your party's trade policy, because....

Tariffs are your friends. Of course, this varies, but we'll get to that later.

The whole point of Victoria II is to provide money to the common capitalist. Aside from increasing the ever-important industrial score, rich capitalists with lots of profitable factories puts money in the hands of the government, allowing them to absorb all those wee African countries I was talking about earlier. To increase output and the upward mobility of your pops, as well as increase happiness as not to allow your party to lose control, you need to decrease taxes. To protect industry, you need to shut out competition. To do this, you need to....

INCREASE TARIFFS!!!!!!!!!

Think about it: I was able to fight THE ENTIRE CIVIL WAR without charging a cent in taxes, WHILE earning 3500 Vicky II dollars, or whatever they are, per DAY: even with my obnoxiously large naval budget (I later upgraded my 200- odd ironclads to crush England). I brought England to its knees on a twenty percent tariff and minimal taxes.

Tariffs are a powerful tool, but they're not for everyone. For itty-bitty little countries like, say, the Netherlands, possessing almost no natural resources, Tariffs can prohibitively increase factory input costs. The answer? Subsidize until you can get a slice of Africa. Once again: think like a ruthless warmongering ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥: America took the largest slice of Natural resources, and can thus industrialize and run their vast Empire on trade duties alone. South America is already colonized by powerful rivals, but Africa is held by a few weak little tribal Kingdoms, and Portugal, easy to conquer and, more importantly, providing a ready base for colonization once the machine gun is invented and the "life rating" hurtle mounted.

Above all: make excuses to ramp up tariffs and beat down taxes. If you can keep the raw materials flowing to your factories by some means OTHER than decreasing tariffs, DO IT: ANYTHING is better than a nation flooded with cheap foreign industrial goods.

Also: If you have to tax, tax the poor: they've got no money to invest anyway, and they're in no position to rise up to Capitalism like the Middle Class. Of course, it’s better to give them opportunities with tariffs, but, if you MUST come down on someone...

Yes... what ABOUT America?

It's one of those sadly democratic countries where you choose ruling parties at will, and thus have to engage in the awful practice of electioneering. In fact, elections brought me to the brink of ruin after I won the civil war, bringing all those pesky Southern states and their Democratic majorities back into the fold, who promptly banished my tariff policy and doomed my ironclads...

ARG.

What then, is one to do? Shifting party loyalties is a useless waste of National Focus, and unless one is truly desperate the ability is better spent spawning capitalists, bureaucrats, and colonizing.

Deal with what you've got. Just remember, keep the goods flowing to the factories, and the Capitalist's pocket's lined, and it'll all be fine. Stuck with a bunch of Leze-Faire liberals and trying to industrialize? Ramp up tariffs and declare war: the weapons have to come from SOMEWHERE. Stuck with and interventionist government that makes capitalism too expensive? Subsidize EVERYBODY, and nobody will fail. Stuck with State Capitalism with the same problem? Every time a capitalist starts a project, immediately fund ALL of his costs and subsidize. And invest ALL your tariff money into factories, and....

But what if I can't use tariffs?

ummmmm......

Let me think about that for a minute and get back to you...

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm......


HMMMMMMMMMM.....

Right. First off, you want to ramp of the tariffs as high as you possibly can. In a gloriously prolific economy like America's, this should still cover your costs, allowing you to continue lowering taxes (though maybe not as much as you'd like). If not, you can do one of several things:

1. Run your government like Communist Russia and electioneer like a madman. I know I'm disobeying my own advice, but if you're stuck with the Southern Democratic party in the 1830's... well... at least you've got State Capitalism on your side. To cover the cost of building factories, you can either take loans or ramp up taxes: there's risks to both. If you take a loan, you need to be able to pay it before some enormous colonial Empire (ahem, England) declares war on you. If you ramp up taxes, you need to make sure you don't start a revolution, let alone impoverish your nation. The plus side of this is that, assuming you're running the affairs of a party you hate, your oppressive policies will garner support for your opposition party, whose campaign you're also, strangely enough, running...

2. If your Party With the Terrible Economic Policy isn't State Capitalist, tax the little guy, once again feeding your campaign. Subsidize all factories to make sure capitalists can stay afloat. If you have a rainy day fund (which is highly recommended)- if you're playing as a nation such as the U.S.- I would highly recommend saving at least 2Mil of your tariff money from Republican rule (if you're starting in House Divided mode), force debt repayment from wee little nations, allowing you to fund your economy without too much tax. Try slashing unneeded budgets to keep taxes down (HINT: you need education constantly but not national stockpile in peacetime).

3. Be an idiot. I'm serious. I haven't tried this one yet (intentionally at least), but if you don't subsidize, ramp up taxes, suppress movements, and lose relatively inconsequential wars after adding lots of war goals, your people will HATE you, and consequently vote out your imbecilic ruling party.

You might be wondering... with all those tarriffs lurking around, how am I going to supply my factories? Aside from grabbing your personal slice of Africa, which can take until the mid-1870's, you've got a couple of options...

1. Make Big Nation. In other words, conquer people. More territory= more rescources. When you're going about your conquests, make sure to have a look at the rescource map beforehand. Chances are good: if a region doesn't have something that will contribute to your economy, its not worth the effort. That is, of course, unless you and the owner of said region have been at eachother's throats for a while, but there's ussually better ways to pursue Victorian blood fueds than chipping away territory with little or no value.

2. Spheres. If you can't compensate with a huge nation, sphered nations are lovely, especially because, if a country's in your sphere, they're in your tariff zone. In other words, they don't have to pay your tariffs (ie. you can ship their raw materials into your country), but your tariffs apply to them (ie. other nations attempting to import industrial goods into said sphered nations will have to pay you). Spheres create both another closed market for your industrial goods, a supply of natural resources, and extra tariff revenue, all without (usually) having to go to war.

NOW!!!!!!! You scream.

Of course not. With countries like, say, Russia, it doesn't bode well to industrialize early because (apparently), before you have the right tech, artisans actually produce MORE efficiently than factories. In other words, unless you subsidize like a madman, you're just going to wind up with alot of closed factories and an even more menacing lot of unemployed craftsmen sitting around wondering what to do with their tools (ie. bashing government skulls) while they're out of a job. Not sure how true this is (its the result of alot of wiki-searching), but I've seen the results with my first commie Russian play when I tried to stimulate the economy with alot of government startups. I'd still play it safe and subsidize/ aide any investments that pop up (they will of you attack someone, believe me), but huge, enthusiastic bouts of factory building will just blow up in your face... trust me. Railroads though, railroads are a great way to get the Capitalists started. Works in nearly every country.

In short: support capitalism early, building a good capitalist base will work wonders for when you finnally research the required tech, but don't go on a factory bonanza on day one. You'll regret it.

Certain countries are more geared towards industrialization than others. Britain starts with millions of factories that bassically run themselves. America's capitalist base builds graddually over time. Russia, on the other hand, starts with a nerf on industrial research and no capitalists whatsoever. How to get around this? Try and Sphere China (thus flooding the Western World with Artisan goods and producing a massive global economic crisis that will crush the fledgling industries of your rivals), research your culture tech, conquer bits of Africa (for use later), and THEN get into the industrial game. Because you've let the Chinese behmoth loose upon the world, used cheap artisan prices to fund your conquests, and taken North Africa from the French/Ottomans, you'll be in a perfect position to tranisition to Traditional Academia, sieze the Middle East, and eclipse your enemies in the Industrial Revolution. Either that or said Revolution will never happen because China flooded the market. Bassically, be careful with the China thing: if it destroys your favorite savegame, well... don't say I didn't warn you...

Edit on China:

If you're playing as Russia, for instance, sphere Manchuria to get the Treaty of Peking territories. Then nab Shangdong and Xinang. They will FIX YOUR ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. You can return later to free Manchuria from the Chinese (Manchurians won't attack their spherelord), and ally them as a police force for the East/ first responders to any Imperial Chinese reprisals. Huge peasant tax base and abundance of rescources will provide all the income you need without causing global economic meltdown. Of course, this only works for Russia, and you COULD just cause the meltdown, but...

Sometimes, no matter how good of a manager you are, everything comes crashing down. Maybe you've taken one loan to many, or couldn't deal with an idiotic ruling party, or ran out of Tariff money, or forgot that factories need raw materials, or...

A lot of things can happen to your digital money-making machine, and it might just take desperate measures to save a desperate situation.

Example: "All my factories are closing! I've subsidized (or I can't subsidize because of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ liberals), but it doesn't seem to help! All my workers are unemployed and rioting! Help me Mr. Strategos help!"

Well... first off the unemployment isn't so bad if you hate your ruling party. If you actually like your governmental puppets well... tough.

Secondly, I have, over the course of countless hours of gilded-age gullibility, found the universal cure for economic difficulties:

War. That's right. War. You've got to be ruthless to play the Game of Thrones. Mobilizing will pick up all the excess labour and galvanize your country to fight the enemy. Soldiers need weapons, and food, and uniforms, and cigarettes, and whisky, and prostitutes, and....

Anyway: you get the picture. Your battered industrialists will praise your name and immediately set to work earning money again.

Example 2: "Oh no! Mr. Strategos! I did what you said, and it worked! You're a genius! Unfortunately, all the lads returned from the war to great triumph, but my factories kept churning out weapons like a lot of blockheaded Henry Ford's! Prices have plummeted and factories are closing and the troops are STILL unemployed and I can't declare war because if I do the antiwar movement will rebel and I'll die and my infamy is to high and England is eyeing a way to take me down and.....

OK little Timmy Tycoon. Calm down. It’s only a game. Breathing again? Good. This, breathless run- on sentences and all, is a tough situation with a very simple solution.
1. Learn grammar: it'll make my job easier.
2. Buy like a madman. All those war profits you made? (And I'm hoping you started a war that made you some money) Spend them. Buy up all the surplus weapons, the tin cans, etc. If it gets to bad or you can't fund your buying spree, even, God forbid CLOSE DOWN extra and unprofitable factories. Start buying up goods NOT being overproduced to encourage capitalists to expand to THAT area (the prices should shoot up). If you're a State Capitalist, all this is easier, just shut down unneeded factories and build in new areas. Remember to ramp up tariffs, because the LAST thing you need is cheap foreign goods adding to the overproduction of home-grown goods.

And that's it for today folks! Hoped this helped, and hopefully your Conquests will be far less frustrating in the future.