I looked at all the posts and I noticed the different priorities between economic buildings everyone had. And yes, the best way to increase your income is by strategically choosing what economic buildings to build, when and where.
As to trade
You get income from exports and imports, and understandably much more (like 3-4 times as much) from EXPORTING trade goods out of a province than importing. And then you have land trade and sea trade, and again, SEA TRADE is highly more profitable than land trade, by a factor of about 3 to 4 as well.
(Digression: Why? Transport by sea is a hell of a lot easier than transport by land. A horse pulling a barge on the Erie Canal can pull 100 tons over water whereas it can pull only a 1 ton wagon on wheels. It was cheaper to transport the same goods, from the coast of Spain 5,000 miles diagonally across the Atlantic Ocean to South America than 200 miles from Madrid [central Spain] to Barcelona [coastal Spain].)
This being said you CANNOT have the easier, better, more lucrative SEA trade with a neighboring region, even if both have ports. You can only conduct sea trade with the region next to that one, onwards.
Secondly, and this applies to land OR sea trade, you need TRADE GOODS in a region to really benefit from trade. You can have just wool in a region, and get the dividends from the export of that good (AND import into the regions that you control). And then you can have something extra like iron or dyes, and then you get the dividends from those. As far as it appears to me there are no diminishing returns for each additional trade good present in a region, except perhaps the limit imposed by whatever market/merchant wharf/merchant guild you have ("increase in tradable goods," not personally sure what it means but just make sure to maximize where the effect will be biggest). Now if you're in the sad case where you're looking at a region without any trade goods (Smyrna or Tbilisi for example), you can export only something really unprofitable called "Common Goods." It delivers chintzy returns for whatever roads/markets/ports you have in the region, so plan your investments accordingly.
If you're highly landlocked faction with few coastal regions, ports really aren't an option. Landlocked regions simply don't get the option to build ports and coastal regions do, is all. You'll be stuck focusing on land trade, so that means really selectively choosing where to build roads and markets. It may be simply better to build those farms instead to get up population for tax revenues which will be your only notable income, or investing in mines where you can. First you get first level mines (around 80-200 florins dividend a turn for an investment of 2,000) and then much, much later second level mines (an additional 60-120? florins dividend a turn for an investment of 3,500).
On the other hand if you're a coastal faction with a straight strategic path of taking more coastal regions more options open up. Ports can be a huge, huge (HUGE) boon to a coast heavy faction. Then you can go ahead and build ports before roads, if you don't mind the reduced agent/army mobility for the time being. More so for regions with bordering with few other regions (like Tunis or Corinth) or more so for islands. No neighboring regions to trade with or little threat of rebels and invasions? Skip the time/money for roads and smack a level 1, 800-florin port down on the island first chance you have. With enough trade resources present, sea exports to each region can be 700-1000 florins a turn, alone.
Stuff about land/sea trade all well and said, it may be a reason to refocus your priorities in your campaign strategy. When I look at a province's resources (city size, strategic location) I consider the presence or absence of the SEA as an additional resource. Roads and farms and taxpayers may be money, but ports and sea trade are a kind of "bigger" money to me. So it depends on your strategy. If you play a landlocked campaign like Russia or the Holy Roman Empire, don't fret about blitzing towards the coast; selectively plop down roads and farms, and keep your people happy and your taxes high. If you're playing maritime campaigns like Venice, Sicily, Spain or Egypt, you won't have much in the way of focusing your attacks on more coastal regions. In my Egyptian campaign I followed the highly recommended opening strategy of blitzing northwards along the rebel coast. Build ports fast, ignore roads for a few turns as the regions are so small anyway, and you'll start turning the eastern Mediterranean into some insane hotbed of sea trade. I was earning 5000+ a turn from Antioch, and the trade revenue was dwarfing my tax revenue by a factor of 2 to 3. Jerusalem and Alexandria were a close second and third, even though the tax income from those regions were higher than Antioch's.
Also note that your settlements can of course trade with your other settlements, and only with those belonging to neutral/friendly factions. It may be reason to have second thoughts about declaring war on another faction whose regions with which your own regions are trading with, especially if you are exporting more to them, than they are to you. Remember, trade gives the exporter three to four times as much money as the importer. Again, this consideration is greater for maritime factions than for landlocked factions. Delay hostilities until you've saved up a respectable War Chest of funds for the hit in income, or be prepared to launch a fast and hard war to take those trade-relevant regions and restore the trade and money flow. It is without saying rebels are ALWAYS an enemy faction, so rebel-held regions are ones off-limits to trade, another factor to consider in your strategy.
(And note that trade received a MAJOR fix in Rome: TW onwards. Provinces in Medieval 1 could only export to OTHER faction's provinces, so as you conquered more of the map, granted you have MILITARY ships forming a path between coastal provinces, your trade income went DOWN... I had Acre go from 3-4k a turn to nearly zero because I conquered too many former customers.
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And this applies to most other construction you do. Higher tier buildings usually yield diminishing returns. It is better to build four or five more basic upgrades to several provinces than to build one or two advanced upgrades which will yield you little. Again, an advanced warehouse/docklands in a region with three to four trade goods and lots of customer provinces may be better than a grain exchange in a region with no goods (except "Common Goods" of course). Note that the strategy for military buildings/blacksmiths runs more of the opposite way than economic buildings.
As to taxes
Not much more for me to say here. More people equals more possible tax revenue. More happiness gives you a higher capability to raise taxes without having the people revolt. In this case, happiness or population-growth related buildings are as relevant as trade buildings, maybe more. When tight on cash there is no need to oversplurge on the first of those two (happiness) but that's usually with settlements close to your capital you've held onto for a long time; just don't blow money on coaching houses/pleasure palaces when you could buy four or five land clearances.
And then you have to decide whether to tax people bare, or drop taxes low to grow population for regions where you have either villages or small towns and want cities instead. That is when population growth buildings look like a good priority, like 600 florin Land Clearances or whatnot, and then health bonuses are better than growth bonuses because health increases public order and growth does not (Town Halls are the best: 5% health AND 5% law every upgrade). That said, I'll state the obvious, cities make more money, and more flexibility in making money than castles. If you need more income, try changing coastal settlements to cities, you can leave your landlocked settlements as castles.
As to merchants
(If my post sounds a lot like frogbeastegg's advice [like her guide to Rome Total War, well... it is based heavily on her wonderful guides.
This one's to you.
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Let's see... well, for one, taxes can be considered THE steady and reliable source of income, which you can count on to pay bills and upkeep. Then trade is a more lucrative but volatile source of income, which will net you lots of money, very fast, but not very predictably. Merchants are sort of a step beyond this... the method of income that requires the most player input and thinking, and is as turbulent as the merchants' own careers. If a competing merchant puts one of yours out of business, well... it's also putting your poor merchant's income out of commission too.
You'll have to explore to find where the richest goods are the farthest away from your capital, and then traveling time in the Grand Campaign is really awful. Go after gold, silver, ivory, amber, and silk. Not sure if this is related to faction or what resources you already have access too, but iron is really lucrative to my Egyptian campaign. And then you can try a really mean but satisfying alternative merchant strategy, if you have a skilled enough merchant, of simply hunting other merchants down and seizing their assets. Whereas top ranked merchants with monopolies may get an average of 700-800 florins a turn or so (maybe 1200 with gold) you could get around 1200, turn after turn, by putting other merchants out of business (not sure if it depends on the target merchant's skill). Merchant income will never give you as much as taxes or regular trade, but it's the bonus, of the bonus incomes... go nuts.
And then army upkeep is usually THE single biggest hit to your treasury. Recruit non-militia units as late as possible, especially if they're junk units used as fodder for which you won't be building experience. When you're training armies it may be better to go for one good unit rather than two cheap units, because when you're keeping the unit for twenty, thirty, forty turns the overall upkeep will dwarf whatever it initially cost to train the unit.
Well, good luck building economy and happy hunting. It's one of my favorite aspects of playing M2.
Best way to build an economy
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Originally Posted by homefry
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Granted, this is a highly uncertain venture, when you have to first gain control of a valuable enough resource, get a merchant's skill up high enough, and then replace him when he dies of old age if he doesn't lose his assets to another merchant. Merchants are nice because they only cost an initial 550 florins and 0 upkeep, so they are best as a source of BONUS income to boost your treasury. So don't get all excited thinking you can run an empire trading amber or ivory, though being able to master merchant trade can provide a very nice boost to your game. 
