The best place might not be dead centre once you factor into account the money.

Check you finances after you place your capital. Then try somewhere else and check again. You will see the trade/corruption figures alter. Capital placement tends towards centre of the population rather than centre geographically. If you started in the corner, say as Egypt, your big cities in the Nile area with all the cash will suffer from big corruption losses if you move the capital too far west/north.

My Egpytian capital in the Imperial campaign went Alexandria, Jerusalem, Cyprus as my empire expanded east, north, then west through Turkey/Greece.