I've never relied on trade, and I think I make something of 100-150 million quatloos profit every day (and that figure rises every day) though I'd have to check to get an accurate number... All through aggressive and opportunistic expansion. I've gobbled up so many abandoned newbie home worlds and conquered my allies when they went inactive that I've now got at least 300 planets with a budget surplus of over 350k daily, and I just received word that two more of my neighbors went inactive... and I counted several planets with treasuries of over 100 million each. I've been in the top 10 richest players for 2 months now, and all that with barely a trade fleet worth mentioning
