Problem making money

[Rhyfelwyr]

can you illustrate a bit more on the above, so lowering taxes will help grow population you mean.

because at times i get this high squalor rate, I believe by increasing tax rate i try to lower squalor as well.

Squalor will only rise if you fail to upgrade your walls in time and if you do not build health buildings such as Town Halls etc. Having low taxes will often more than double growth in the early game, compared to having high taxes. There's a difference of 0.5% growth between each tax level. Its not like MTW, where you always set taxes to as high as possible.

Also remember to make high Chilvarly Generals governors, +0.5% growth for each chivalry helmet they have.

[Yaropolk]

Click on the pot of gold in your lower right corner to see your finances. You will be surprised how much your army costs you. I try to keep it around 10%-15% of my gross income. Pretty much do what other said - garrison cities with militia only (city units). Don't pay soldiers to sit around. If you've got 5-6 units in one castle, go sack something. Be smart about what you train. Don't train it unless you are planning to use it and check the maintainance cost. Spearmen cost ~100 / turn, and knights ~175-250.

As an aside, Sherwood forresters are ~280 for a 30 man unit! That's almost 10 pieces of gold per year per brigand. I mean come on, my inns and brothels should be returning 90% of that back to me!

[Anonymous II]

Also remember to make high Chilvarly Generals governors, +0.5% growth for each chivalry helmet they have.

In the beginning of the game, I find it to be very useful to keep the King (if he's chivalrous) in a city (not a castle), to promote growth.

Growth of cities is the most important thing for your economy early on unless you go expansion as mentioned above (sacking settlements are very profitable indeed). Therefore, Paul of Byzantium, I would recommend you to build farms (farms earn you money too, "farming income", in addition to promote growth) and keep low taxes in cities that potentially can become money makers through trade (like Toledo if you convert the castle to a city - and you should, Valencia should be your castle).

Squalor is never a problem in your home region (can be in your middle eastern empire far from home though), unless you fail to upgrade walls when the time is ripe, as mentioned by Rhyfelwyr. Building town hall-series and city barracks-series will also reduce squalor (or outweigh it) and promote growth. It's like a Kinder Surpise - you get multiple benefits in one package!

And the final tip: Don't waste money on merchants! Before they brings back the 200 florins they cost you, they'll probably will be overtaken by some foreign merchant anyway.

[Armenia_Byzantium]

Hey guys,

I followed what you guys told me to do.

Im earning quite fair amount now.

I have converted a couple of settlements to cities. I sacked all settlements in north west africa including timbuktu ( man do i earn alot there! ), that place is a gold mine indeed!

I destroyed the moor faction in the process, I dealt a heavy blow to portugal and gave them a crushing defeat when i killed their king in an ambush. Now they do what ever i want them to do basically. But in no time I will finish them completely.