Buying resources, materials, or goods in Imperialism is done at the end of a turn during the series of screens that appear straight after "End turn" is clicked and before the newspaper heralding the new quarter appears.
Set up[]
To set up an offer to buy anything, for action during that process, before the end of turn you click the third button in the main menu (with the "$" sign, called "Give Trade Orders") near the top of the screen then the left-hand tab in the "Orders" column. You may offer to buy anything listed, up to a maximum of four items in any turn.
You may arrange for particular nations to be unable to offer you anything if you impose a boycott, which works for both buying and selling.
Buy[]
After clicking "End Turn", when the program has done your selling, your resulting cash balance will show at top left (giving you a rough guide to how much you should restrain your buying if you will be in debt). Note that the cost of military upkeep and any interest charges will be deducted later.
You receive other nations' selling offers (if any), one after another until you have no more merchant marine space or no more offers. You may accept the whole offer (if enough merchant marine space is available) or a lesser number or may reject the deal. Offers follow the order of items on the Board of Trade list. Whether accepting or rejecting, you may save yourself time by checking the box at the left to receive no more offers of that commodity this turn.
At any time in the process you may click on any of the highlighted commodities on the right-hand panel to see who is offering and who is bidding, what order each offeror will choose to talk to bidders, and how many merchant marine holds each bidder still has free. That usually gives you some idea of what you will be offered later, so that you can plan to reduce current acceptances if you want enough holds free for a more desirable commodity likely to be offered later.
Results[]
Finally you see the "Deal Book" for details of what you bought and sold and some of the other factors affecting your cash flow. Turn the page at the bottom in the usual way if there's an indication of a subsequent page.
The right-hand panel still contains details of bidders and offerors except for the "hold" numbers.
You may re-inspect the Deal Book later in the turn from the "Help" menu reached from the question-mark button at top right of the map screen.