Alpaca has a point though. M2TW is a very different game.
In RTW your main concern was unrest, as that was the dominant factor in that game.
In M2TW there are a number of things that differ:
  • Civil unrest is a lot less than in RTW, making it possible to effectively suppress it in outlying provinces using the right buildings and a large garrison.
  • Merchant income actually increases with distance to capital, i.e. an opposite effect to the unrest factor.