It may be possible to grow a city while ignoring the new world, but it probably won't make your life easier as you'll have to find a way to buy/produce all the goods you usually import from there. And most of the oil wells are located in the new world, so ignoring it will result in a huge penalty in the late game.
However it probably exists a method for every good you need: for furs, there's a specialist (Master Craftsman Franke) that changes the input materials to wool and iron for example. Rum and coffee can be bought from Madame Kahina. Other goods (pocket watches, jewelry, caoutchouc that is needed for penny farthings, cigars...) may have some replacement options too.
But this will come at a cost, you will need some very specific specialists, trade unions (which costs influence), buying goods from NPCs costs money and the restock rate is limited... It's probably possible, but I would say it's not suitable. I'm not a very experienced player though.
Early game until 10k engineers, you'll need it, after that you get the Institute from LoL, get the specialists you need and import the other with docklands, yet i'm doing all that and sometimes i do need stuff from new world. Idk Are you trying to get Investors without new world or some other challenge?
Hello,
Before the research institut and Docklands , i have tried this kind of challenge and the number maximum of investors was between 3000 and 4000 if I well remember..
Actually , it was possible to build a city with a World 's Fair in the Old World and staying on ONLY one island ... but you must have a good knowledge of alls the mechanics of the game !![]()
It is possible to build a city with lots of investors, in the core game, without going to the New World.
With DLC's it becomes even more easy, with docklands and the research institute, everything is possible.
The only problem could be Rubber, but you can import rubber products with Docklands to compensate.