Best location for Merchants' Guild is ?

[andrewt]

1) it has umpteen ressources. From the top of my head : 2 iron, 3 furs, 2 amber, 1 silver, and maybe some fish as well
2) Most provinces it trades with also have amber, which is an expensive ressource
3) it's central and borders two seas, meaning it gets to trade with russia, poland, hre, flanders and even england sometimes.
4) the mines are awesome, which makes it a doubly good town
E) it's usually far away from your capital, so merchants trading amber make fortunes.

I don't include merchant income, just the city itself. A far away capital would have corruption destroy that income from Stockholm.

A few assorted thoughts regarding b-black68's post:
1. Constantinople and Nicaea has a land bridge in the game so it's considered land trade.
2. While I was plaing the Moors, Timbuktu's trade to Marrekesh went up from 200 to 500 when I upgraded from dirt to paved roads. I didn't see the other provinces get anything from upgraded roads. I'm wondering if there's some distance thing that got hit by it.
3. If both provinces have the same resource, it doesn't get traded. A province that doesn't have resources or if the exported province has all its resources only trades common goods. Still, some provinces like Rome that only exports common goods still get a ton of money.
4. What penalties do castles get versus cities on trade?
5. How much does population count?