I was playing as Lumeris. I dumped several thousand dust into my first trading company, getting it to level five, before I noticed that the income had not changed from 100 Dust and 10 Science. Very disappointing for me, as I wanted to do a game where I did a lot of trade routes.

And no, there were no blockades. And even if there were, they would have no affect, as I was Lumeris.