Money

[Slaists]

also:
make sure that, in all of your cities, your economy is growing. economic growth tends to depend on your upper-class tax. you always want it to be positive, because you will see a steady grwth of income.
in fact, in my current Prussian campaign-in 1751- I have been seeing a rise in about 800-1400 dollars per turn. this is because my economy is growing, and i ave tons of factories.

The economic growth depends on several factors

1. Enlightenment techs (especially the right-most column of them)
2. Industrial techs
3. The upper class tax - the lower the tax, the faster the growth
4. Industrial buildings - most of them contribute significantly to economic growth at higher levels
5. Ports & trade
6. Farms
7. Roads
8. Last, but not least: the ministers (especially the Prime Minister + the monarch himself)

Faction wise: Prussia starts with ridiculously high economic growth from turn 0. Turkey, on the other hand, has negative growth in all of its provinces at the start. It takes quite some building up to get Turkey's economy growing.

lower taxes for the poor, raise them for the rich. the rich are easier to please anyways. destory fishing ports and replace with trade expcept about 2 of them, which you need to create a navy. now, dont worry if pirates raid your trade routes. it is MUCH worse if the enemy blockades a port so keep your fleets near to defend them.
right now with 4 ports (one blockaded) i make about 5k through the 3 that are still active. unfortunately the most active of the ports was blockaded and im preparing a fleet to destroy them.

I would not recommend that (the bold part). High taxes for the rich result in a huge hit to the economic growth of the townships (check your province economic growth as the upper class taxes are raised). Of course, if the towns have no wealth to start with then raising the upper class taxes will not do anything in terms of reducing the current tax revenue. However, you'll feel the hit in the long run in terms of lost growth potential. Having said that, there are some factions for which raising the upper class tax for some short period is advisable. Turkey is a good example. The towns start with no town wealth and negative growth. Raising the tax for a decade or so would help to build up the industrial infrastructure. Prussia, on the other hand, should not raise upper class tax since towns start with significant wealth and are growing fast.