Backwards Logic
Emperor Palpatine
Definitely plantation the dyes. It's a 2 5 tile instantly, versus a 2 5 tile after growing to a town and researching Printing Press (non-riverside numbers. Obviously add 1 to each side for riverside tiles). Assuming no Free Speech for +2 or Universal Suffrage for +1, the dye plantation is an instant town. Only the civics increase the output of a town further than what the plantation can do. Not to mention the trade fodder it provides. That being said, there's no reason not to cottage them before calendar assuming we can spare the worker turns and the city plans call for it.