Almost all provinces have at least some farmland, but some won't have enough to support a large population. After you've placed all fertile land under the plow, your populace might well outgrow local food production. If so, and your population is not too large, you're best off growing specialty foods locally, and importing wheat. That's because wheat is the cheapest commodity. Larger populations should grow their wheat, since they will need such a large quantity of it that to import it might clog up trade.

Make industry more efficient by centralizing your industrial sectors. First, build the same type of raw material producers (clay pits, for example) close together. Second, build the warehouse that will store the finished pottery fairly close, but on a main road. Third, build the pottery workshops between your cluster of clay pits and the warehouse. This minimizes the distance that cart pushers have to travel and improves the efficiency of your whole pottery industry. Apply the same principle when you establish other industries, and try to avoid having them share the same main roads.

A few buildings working at full capacity with a reliable labor supply will out-produce a larger number of buildings with unreliable labor. To ensure a steady supply of labor for your raw material producers, farms and other industrial buildings, create small housing communities near them. Don't worry about evolving these industrial tent cities very far or very quickly, but do be sure that you build plenty of prefectures near them, as their residents are likely to be in a perpetually bad mood.

Learn how to use the Special Orders button in your granaries and warehouses to spread goods evenly across your city.