restoring early game gold

in GnK early game (pre trading posts tech/turn 100) we could have 5 river tiles worked per city, and could have up to 4 cities, so this worked out to be about 20 gpt just from river gold.
now in BnW an early trade route only yields about 5-6 gold, so we need 4 on international trade to have the same amount of gpt as before, yet by this time we only have 3 trade routes available!

now trade routes is more interesting than a simple gold on water tiles, so i want to simulate the early gold without modding river gold back. so what would you guys think on it, without giving too much gold in late game?
I would say either mod trade posts back to trapping, or earlier trade route limit increase (up to 5 before medieval) and cheaper caravan. have anyone tested this? any other suggestions?

Maybe you could choose a tech (make it a fairly crucial one) and make it stop gold appearing on river tiles. Timed correctly, maybe you can cut out the gold at the right time. But you have to choose a tech that people are willing to give up however much GPT to research.

Early gold is in monarchy, luxuries and marketplaces. (and exploration)

They could also reduce the hammer cost of caravans (although cargo ships could probably stay expensive)

By the time you have 4 cities (I would not really call it the "early game") you should have some developed luxuries to work as well as a trade route or two. I've found gold to be slightly more scarce in BNW but not markedly so - mostly I have to choose a way to get some gold instead of counting on "free" gold from rivers or coast.

BNW gold is easy to get, if anything, it's easier to get. G&K and BNW diety games.. I still have pretty much the same gpt by med era. Usually I hunt barbarians down relentlessly anyway, so my archers are usually leveling and making me money, I trade off luxuries, even my last copy. If I have 14 happiness, and have 2 lux's I dont need the happiness from, I know I'll live fine off of 6 happiness for a while. Use lux trades to buy a settler, and get more money/sci/lux's coming in.

Trade route gold more than compensates for river gold. You can get a trade route up a lot sooner than you would ever get 4 cities each working 5 river tiles for 20 gold. That is not early game at all. Why not instead of modding the game, work within the scope of the new game? Trade routes are great and end up producing significantly more gold. You should focus on coastal cities to maximize these profits instead of river cities.