In what order to build all the income-related buildings?

[PaleBlueDot]

In every game I struggle to know what buildings to make first. Obviously I know what roads are good for, that farming leads to population growth and ports allows you to make boats. But most of my cities will only be money-making cities. There are dozens of buildings that affect income, and I never know which one to make first.

This is really bad, as I always make a huge effort in battle not to loose a single company, yet on the campaign map my decisions that have a much larger impact on the economy than that single company are very arbitrary.

Port, Shipwright, Merchants' Wharf, Docklands, Grain Exchange, Market, Fairground, Great Market, banks, Roads, Farms, Land Clearance, Communal Farming, Crop Rotation, Irrigation and many more have an economic impact, as far as I can tell. Which one to I build next?

How can you tell which building will have the largest impact on your economy? Is there any simple rule to follow, such as first making trade possible (road then port) then create something to trade (farms then grain exchange) then increase the amount of goods to be traded (markets) and in the end buildings that raise the value of money (banks), and always build every lower type of economic building (such as basic port) before making more advanced economic buildings (such as banks), or the other way around.

Obviously, unlike the vast majority of decisions in this game, here are some pretty mathematically indisputable right and wrong choices, so it shouldn't be too difficult to either compose a list or a simple rule to follow.

[Fred Putz]

Hmm for me i set all taxes to lowest (expect for the turn a building is to be finished), build roads where possible and all farms with priority. I build a grain exchange as soon as possible. If I need money i build ports/markets and raise the taxes. That´s my simple rule. All other buildings which have little influence on income were built last. Largest income comes from farms (taxes in the long run) and ports (Traderoutes).

[PaleBlueDot]

Yes, I also build roads, farms then grain exchange first, and lower taxes to increase growth rate. But then there are a million remaining turns of the game, and the further out, the more buildings to chose between. It is at the "city"-level sizes where I start getting very unsure. Is merchants wharf better than market, or crop rotation better than bank, which will influence the economy most? How do you make these decisions?

[Fred Putz]

Yes, I also build roads, farms then grain exchange first, and lower taxes to increase growth rate. But then there are a million remaining turns of the game, and the further out, the more buildings to chose between. It is at the "city"-level sizes where I start getting very unsure. Is merchants wharf better than market, or crop rotation better than bank, which will influence the economy most? How do you make these decisions?

I meant always the settlement reaches a new level I always build 1. Roads 2. Farms 3. or 4. Those port buildings 3. or 4. city hall buildings
After that it depends on situation. If i need new units i build something for that (don´t forget the corruption thing) if not i´ll have a look at the settlement details to the left, too. Will the market be better than the new barracks? But in the end i try to build everything that boosts the growth rate first. I think the best source of income is expansion.
Most of the time at turn 50 - 100 I have the biggest population and the biggest income anyway - so i don´t worry that much about what to build next. But i just can speak for me.

[BarSteward]

I tend to go for roads and ports first, in the early period population growth is pretty good anyway so u don't need to put too much money and time into getting the highest level farms.

I tend to find that trade is the biggest source of income so make sure you have trade rights with as many factions as possible and then go for buildings like markets and merchants wharf.

banks tend only to be available in higher level settlements anyway so u should have a good level of development in the settlement before u get the banks but they are a good source of income.

i tend to have taxes quite high in order to slow down pop growth so i dont have a huge city with very basic buildings. You dont want this because the then public order drops off.

their tend to me some settlements that make more money then others, those with ports almost always make more money then landlocked ones, and then location as well, Bruges, Marseille and Antioch are all big money making citys. so bacily it depends on the region if i were u i would build roads as quickly as possible if u are largely landlocked like the holy roman empire or Hungry.

[midget_roxx]

Ports are a must (only as cities) they bring in easily the most income. Next would be roads for travel and trade, then merchant houses until market (later ones are a bit meh), then farms

[Epzilon]

Aren't farms required to increase population growth within a settlement?

[Tears of Destiny]

Aren't farms required to increase population growth within a settlement?

Yes, technically the best way to earn income is to first build Roads for the trade bonus and to help defend settlements (Keep yer GOLD!!!!), then health/food related buildings. So farms are naturally next, as they provide a pop-increase as well as increased income from harvests (More pop more gold). Next, make a spiffy TownHall building (Or the better version if the city is advanced anout) as that not only increases Law (Decrease corruption and thus increase money), but they also increase trade icnome and Health Bonus (Which adds pop-growth which gives money via taxes).

Those three are your most important buildings for money.

After this, concentrate on sea-trade if you have a lot of trade lines to other cities, or markets and such for land-bound cities. Also be aware that Before you increase the Merchant's warf again, make sure you increase your Market, never let one get two-steps ahead of the other, only one step.

The merchant warfs and markets all increase XBLAHX in a linear fashion when upgraded, just like farms (Each upgrade of farm is an extra +1 Farm Production, trade buildings operate the same way), and just like Farms the price roughly doubles with each upgrade and thus takes longer and longer to pay itself off.
Honestly, the very highest tiers of Docks and Markets cost so much gold they are actually not worth building unless you plan on playing for at least another 40-50 turns, as it takes an absurd time for them to pay themselves off and be worth the investment.

[Ichon]

It depends on a few things naturally.

In the long run population affects both taxes and trade amounts so farms have the highest priority usually since they influence both future sources of revenue and provide their own revenue as well. In larger cities squalor reducing buildings become as important so that population growth can continue and usually squalor reduction buildings also have public order or health bonus which raise income 2nd or 3rd way.

Ports and buildings which add trade routes make the next largest impact. So various levels of ports, Wharves, etc. This is the only building which affects income only 1 way which is so important since the bonus is usually large.

Markets not only increase trade but also allow merchants to be recruited which can add another source of revenue. So there are 2 ways to increase income in a single building there.

Guilds- Merchant and Explorer. Merchant is usually best but Explorer is usually easier to get in many cities. Merchants guild gives trade bonus and allows better merchants to be recruited which is 2 ways to boost income which is why better than Explorers, but getting Merchants Guilds in every city requires close supervision to get the points and frequently production of low level merchants which aren't as efficient as making 2-3 cities your main merchant production centers.

Roads will help trade but the initial bonus is quite small when cities and other trade buildings aren't built so can be delayed. Also the movement bonus works for both attacker and defender so I find slowing attacker more important than speeding up defender. Later in a secure empire roads can increase trade between cities hugely but can afford to be delayed compared to other constructions. They are a good thing to build if you are low on funds as frequently they have medium build time and low cost compared to other buildings so are a good filler.

Mines- depending on the resource are moved up or down the list to just after farms or never built if the income takes more than 20 turns to create RoI. So a mine that gives only +100 income but costs over 2,000 to build is not usually worth it compared to almost any other trade structure.

Banks and public order or law buildings can usually be built last unless it is a far distant territory where the +law buildings can increase income more from reducing corruption than any other buildings. City hall/Council building are not so important early on as your empire is usually small and nearby the Capitol so have less need of the bonus it gives- as Empire grows it becomes more important to the point when capturing new regions it is the first building constructed if not already built.

Taxes can be flexible... its most important taxes remain low when a region has low population since the % bonus needs to be maxed early. Later as region population is large increasing taxes is ok as growth naturally slows and .005% of 15,000 is 75 whereas 5% of 3,000 = 150 so even with 4.5% difference larger cities only grow about half as slowly as smaller cities even with higher taxes.

So-

Early;

1. Farms
2. Ports/Mines (Mines only if RoI is good)
3. Markets
4. Merchant Guilds
5. Roads
6. City Hall/Banks

Late;

1. Farms/City Hall
2. Any +trade route building or good RoI mines not yet built
3. Roads
4. Squalor-/Public Health+
5. Banks/Universities/Explorer Guilds (Universities due possible + traits and ancillaries on governors but since its random not a high priority)
6. Low RoI mines

Obviously this is just to maximize income- often other needs might come up like barracks or the naval buildings which give no trade bonus but allow a certain ship to be built. However usually the core cities of the Empire should maximize income as they have the least negative affects due to distance. Periphery cities are best for military focus as they are closer to borders where the military is needed and have more negative modifiers due to distance from Capitol.