Ok I'm surprised no-one mentioned this, but Gunsmiths provide +800 to region wealth and do not conduct Animism conversion. It costs minimal funds and one turn to repair it, while the magistrate line requires many turns and thousands of gold to get it to +3 repression/+6% tax level.

I second Razor1952's town-optimisation advice. In my French game I moved all but one of my Euro universities to former Iroquois territories whilst I demolished wealthy pleasure palaces, universities and churches. I built crafts buildings in their place. I also shipped most of my gentlemen to my overseas universities. This move cost me significant money and research points but in the long run I think it was worth it. I had a policy of one university per region and they must always be paired with a pleasure palace to balance out the unrest. The numerous very poor towns in the former Iroquois territories afforded me that opportunity.