Production buildings must be connected to a Market Building (or Warehouse) to function. However, carts can only travel so far.
Every finished good in Anno 1701 starts at a producer and ends at a processing facility. Efficiency is measured by the uptime of these buildings. If your weaver is waiting for wool, your chain is broken. If your warehouse is full of wool because you don’t have enough weavers, you are wasting gold on maintenance. anno 1701 production chains