Let ' s combine both of your strategies into the standard obscene Indian Ocean trade income scheme . 1 . Colonize Cape . Definitely the CoT , but preferably all of the trade node . 12 . Conquer Zanzibar . All of it . Collect there with a merchant . Due to 100 % control of Cape , no trade leaks out of Zanzibar . 3 . Push Gulf of Aden , Indian trade , Malacca , eventually even China to Zanzibar . Venice could push to Gulf of Aden Alexandria Venice instead , but that ' ll lose you a lot of trade value in Alexandria , which is virtually impossible dominate . 1 Ideally , one would let the major colonizers through , only to steal their CapeZnzibar provinces afterwards , but that can be quite a hassle . <| sep |> I assume you tried the autoadjust function on your monitor ?