- The push and pull of an export economy means you'll have stints with no income if the boats don't show up or your dockworkers weren't around. Build more than one dock.
- You don't have to leave the colonial era until you're ready and the economy in that stage is a little simpler. Consider building up your funds a little before moving up to a new age.
- Tourism is a great way to earn money as long as you have entertainment buildings near the tourist areas set to "Tourists only" and you're not having constant rebel attacks. I'm pretty sure rebel attacks halt all tourism and may even cause the tourists on the island to leave.
- When signing trade deals pay attention to how many units you are shipping. Choosing the highest volume option seems great until you realize it will take most of the game to fulfill so you won't get the bonus relationship points or the bonus money. Most of the time the middle volume option is best but sometimes just knocking a bunch out with the smallest volume is best.
- While it seems like a good idea to import something at a discount and then immediately exporting at a premium pay attention to the volume numbers. They don't match up 1:1 with the import number being the lower volume.
- With farms soil degradation is much more of a thing now so either change your plantation locations periodically or use manure soreaders. I'm pretty sure they just have to hit the building for it to work on the whole field so concentrated spray is your friend here. You could also have 4 plantations growing 4 different things and use the work mode that causes soil degradation to not be a thing.
- This one in the series really doubled down on using the water so don't be afraid to use the water as your main source of transportation.