Problems making money

[rookie7]

Thank you for your prompt help guys.

[EKKM]

Good advice above, thought I would I would add a few things I have noticed (as a newb). You need to be really careful at the start of the game not to blow your entire wad in the first round on units. The upkeep will kill you until you build up your infrastructure.

Make sure you don't have too many castles. The Iberian penninsula has 4? in total. You really only need one in any isolated geographical area. In unisolated areas, go for a ratio of 1 to 4 (or 5 if your nation has good city units).

Build your population up with farms. More people = more taxes, bigger cities and therefore better trade upgrades. Squalor can be managed with the various inns and townhalls.

Send diplomats/proncesses everywhere to obtain trade rights. Once you build ports your revenue will jump markedly.

One of the first things you build in every city is port. In the Iberian pennisula every province has a port (except Cordoba maybe?). This should be either preceded or followed shortly by roads.

Get your merchants experienced close to home by sitting on a decent tradeable item for 5-10 turns. Then put them on a boat and send them to Antioch, north africa or some of the other areas mentioined above. It is important to upgrade them forst so they are not easy takeover targets.

[IrishArmenian]

My normal recipe for getting a lot of money (In my experience, very cost effective, one gets a large output for less input)
Dirt Roads--400 fl. 1 turn
Ground Clearance--600 fl. 2 turns
Port--800 fl.(?) 2 Turns
Grain Exchange--600 fl. 2 turns
Those should get you going. Also, look for silver and gold provinces. Dub linh, Timbuktu, Arguin, Vienna, and a few more, those are very good. Base level mines are about 2000. The payout from a base level mine is about 240. It pays for itself within 9 turns and give you some profit.
A good approach is to think of things that way. How long until it pays for itself?