Just wanted to drop in and leave a few tips about getting your merchants to pop out with higher ability. First off, your merchants roll a random amount of skill between 1 and 3 when they are created, as a base amount. 1 happens half the time, 2 is 1/3 of the time, and 3 is 1/6 of the time overall. Beyond that, their skill can be affected in a few different ways:

1. Shady Dealer - if your settlement does not have at least a town hall in it, the merchant gets Shady Dealer 1 half the time. Of those, 1/3 get an extra 2 points randomly. The first case gives -1 finance, while the latter gives -2 finance. You REALLY want to have a town hall wherever you plan to set up your primary merchant's guild before you recruit any merchants at all, ideally.

2. Legal Dealer - it's the opposite of Shady. With a town hall or better, they get 1 point half the time. If a city hall or better is present, those that get 1 point get a second one 1/3 of the time. The first sort gives +1 finance, while the second gives +2. Again, the importance of the town hall comes into play, though there is also some added incentive to continue and get a city hall as well. That is just a nicety though, and not basically required like a town hall is.

3. Religious Merchant - If a cathedral or better is present, they get 1 point in this 1/2 the time, with an automatic shot at an extra 2 points with 1/3 odds if they get the first. This is bad - we don't want our merchants to have morals. The levels give -1 finance and -2 finance respectively. So... avoid building cathedrals in your primary merchant center.

4. Merchants Guild Trained & Merchants Guild Member - You get these, guaranteed, for having a master guild and a grand master guild respectively. Each grants 1 extra financial point, so your merchants are +2 guaranteed (on top of their random base roll) if you get a gm merchant's guild. There's a guide to building up guild points to get the higher guild levels, but generally you'll get there if you build up trade and crank out some merchants: not too hard.

...and that's all! So to review, what did we learn?

- Build Town Hall ASAP. This is the biggest thing to know, since it otherwise might not be a big early game priority, but affects your recruited merchants by up to 3 financial points. City hall is a further improvement.
- Avoid Cathedrals in merchant-producing cities, they give merchants bad traits!
- Work toward your merchants guild.

Hope that helps!