Uncharted Waters New Horizons

The tekkousen is probably the best trade ship there is. If you have 9 good mates and build 10 tekks- 4 at 300 crew as your watchdogs, and the other six at 45 crew and no guns, you can make ultimate cash by investing at Lubeck and Madeira and making Gold fort Silver runs with three empty ships. With the other seven carrying food and water for twenty days, you can stock a thousand lots of gold on each of the three empties and make a million gold in a single run, if you do it right
Here's how: Start in Lubeck. Buy silver in lots of fifty until the market rate is 150%, then buy 200 extra lots. Sail to Madeira, off the west coast of Northern Africa. Sell silver in lots of fifty until the market rate is fifty percent, then buy a full shipment of gold. Sell fifty lots of silver, then fifty more to get rock bottom price on gold again, then fill a second ship. Repeat again and fill a third ship, then sail back to Lubeck. Sell a full shipload of gold, buy two fifty lots of silver to drive the rate back up to 150%, sell another shipload of gold, buy silver, then sell the last shipload of gold and buy two more fifty lots of silver. Sail back to Madeira and do it all over again. From Madeira to Lubeck, if you don't use autosail, should take 8 days, maybe seven if you leave exactly at midnight. The same is true in reverse. Because the Tekk Has oars and sails, you aren't at the mercy of wind or tide and can always make at least 17 knots with a top crew. Full rigged, on the other hand, can often make no better than ten knots fighting wind and current, and thats where the Tekk beats it hands down. Max cargo is about the same for each, but the Tekks speed makes it a better ship, and with 100 Carronades and Goddess figureheads, three hundred crew can wipe a whole fleet of Venetians right off the face of the planet. Also worth noting is the fact that the Tekk is the only ship you can build from steel, so it's not only one of the fastest big ships, but THE most durable. Not only that, but Tekks are cheap- around 180000 gold, compared to twice that for the Full-rigged. In short, Tekks rule the world. Great as warships, even better as trade ships.

This is my "invincible fleet"

10 teks, all with goddess

9 of them have minimum crew, which leaves 1055 (as I recall) spots for cargo
1 holds water, 1 holds food, 7 hold gold
10th tek (flagship) has 300 crew, with 25 on telescope, min navigation, and the rest battle. Carries food and water
No cannons on any ship

300 crew on your flagship is enough to force a duel against even Venetian Galeasses and you can easily smash anyone. Meanwhile, you can sail for 30 days or so (as I recall) at a fast speed while still packing huge trade volume.

Piracy, Trading, and Exploring all in one package.