You know I love the micromanagement in this game. I love having to move my priests, spies, assassins, diplomats and princesses around the campaign map each turn.
Im playing a campaign as Spain at the moment and Im doing better than I ever have but I still haven't built any merchants because they just don't seem worth even their purchase cost. Does anyone have any tactics to make merchants worthwhile (without exploiting the game I mean).

P.S: Im on turn 87 just nowand due tomy penchant for taking my time I'll almost certainly never fulfill the victory conditions in the alloted time. I know when you are victorious you have the option to carry on the game, is the same true if you run out of time?