I am among those who would like to see Trade improved. I believe this can be easily accomplished with a fake economy. Currently when you sell Mushroom Wine to the nearly-dead you’re only making a 3 or so echo profit on each wine crate sold. Hardly worth it, especially if you have to toss even one 21 echo crate overboard for any reason.
I propose the value should be increased so that at least a 6-9 echo profit be made on the simplest of routes (and around 40-60 for the most daunting). Which is high, but this is where the "fake economy" I’m talking about comes in. The demanded material of an area should change every so frequently upon visits to London. It could be reported in the news from the Harbormaster or when the Zee-Captain reads the news that "Trade Routes have shifted for this season as new supplies and demands are met and made." Just a key phrase so people know that the values of certain items have changed.
This causes people to regularly seek out new and more profitable routes, that don’t necessarily have to keep track of where items are being sold / bought as the supply / demand is simply randomly generated.
Surely this could lead to frustrated captains who spend a while charting a new route only for it to change before they can actually complete it, leaving them with worthless surplus. I think this would be a fun problem to have, it’d make for an interesting story reflecting realistic market risks and leading these captains who fell on hard times into desperation to recover their losses.