Quote Originally Posted by supadodo
First of, don't go berserk spending on units and advanced buildings early on. Don't be too keen to tech up coz u won't have any money to buy those shiny knights anyway. Militias and cheap archers are good enough early game.

Focus on ports and its trade expansions. Ports give the most trade income early on. Next get market buildings but just stop until u reach the 4th tiered one coz you they are just too expensive early on. Roads give lowest benefits but since they're cheap,quick 2 build and give movement bonus, just get them.

Conquer cities. They are cash cows and the larger the better. Sack them all for maximum benefits. Nobody gives a sh1t for chivalry. Try to get off-shore or island cities coz they get lots of income from sea-trade.

Heres a side note. Changing time span can largely affect income. On 2 years/turn, income is less. On 0.5, income is absurd. I am now playing 0.5 yr/turn and now in turn 500 sumthing. I have 5000000+ florins. I mainly focused on trade early on.
I had to cheat my way some times and use shell command add_money to get some cash as im getting bankrupt after the first 36 turns