In that case, you'll be happy to know I did go for CoL before currency
Inherited turn: change nothing
600 BC (1) Alex had 2 archers attack Ghuzz ( the barb town), both defenders are now hurt. I give one of our axes a second
city raider promotion and charge in, killing the Garrison archer and gaining 3XP. I could probably charge in with the other one, but that would autoraze the town and after taking a closer look, I prefer to keep it - it controls no less than 4 resources and saves us having to send a settler there. I did consider the comments (its placement is not ideal) but in my opinion, having a good extra city now beats having optimal city placement a hundred turns down the road.
I move the archer out (!) of Arbela hoping to get the barb archer there to get to attack across the river instead of pillaging our ivory.
IT Alas, the archer pillages ivory anyway turning Persepolis, Susa and Pasargadae unhappy.
575 BC (2) Ghuzz grows to size 2, its lone defender is at 2/3 health, our axe charges:
Gandhi will trade monarchy but not fairly. Alex wants us to stop trading with Gandhi. I have to consider this but we want to maintain open borders with him to get religion to spread, so I decline.
550 BC (3) Mathematics comes in, after having read everything over, I decide to go for Code of Laws ( due in 14). I don't expect to found a religion with it, but the gpt we save with courthouses will allow our research to be turned back up, now at 80 but that won't be sustainable.
Susa produces another archer, I have it start on a worker. Persepolis starts on the aqueduct (7 turns).
IT Archer defends against Barb near Arbela and promotes. I hold off on the exact promotion.
525 BC (4) Axe attacks another barb near Persepolis, promotes.
IT Great Lighthouse is built somewhere.
500 BC (5) Tarsus founded along the river to the North (another floodplains / hills city). The reason I founded it there was we want more commerce, mainly, and it ties in well with the rest of the empire. I didn't go for the iron because it's way too far out and we don't have adequate military to guard a settler on a long trip. An alternate choice would have been to send the settler to the South of our capital, but it'll get more commerce on its current spot.
On the downside, we're now at 19 gold and -7 income.
Here's our lands now (screenshot grabbed at last turn, not this turn)
Ghuzz stops protesting and starts a granary.
Trade Alex Monotheism and Mathematics for Monarchy and revolt to Hereditary Rule and Slavery (no harm in the latter).
Interrupt quarry construction and get Arbela's worker back to get ivory online again.
475 BC (6) Turn off growth in Susa.
450 BC (7) Pasargadae Library- Barracks. Arbela Granary - Library.
For want of alternatives, mainly.
IT Confucianism is founded, meaning we aren't first to CoL.
425 BC (8) Pasargadae is unhappy at 7 - I checked only last turn and it had a spare happy face, otherwise I'd have turned off growth.
400 BC (9) No matter, as the ivory is back online ( I don't road it yet , we want the stone online asap now and we don't have the spare military to guard the camp).
3 barbs along our borders: one axe suicides against our axe, another one takes out an archer with first strike in a forest between Susa and Persepolis. Susa's nexly built axe goes to contain it.
375 BC (10) Persepolis aqueduct finishes, Hanging Gardens due in 16 but the stone should be online in 4 turns max (2 remaining on the quarry, 2 for the road.
The road to India is finished, rest is up to them ( stupidly I sent the worker back; we could have had him build a road within Indian borders). One axe from Susa goes North, the other two available Axemen should sweep the Southern area where barbs are still popping up. I suggest to keep Susa on military for MP happiness and antibarb patrols. Other cities should spit out a few more workers when we can. There's a worker to the East of Persepolis which can either chop to aid in Hanging Gardens construction or move and get the gems online for extra happy and growth.
No immediately useful trades presented themselves, though we do want to pick up Sailing if only because it's a prerequisite for Calendar (which we can use for the incense to the East of Tarsus and the dyes to the South of Perse).
And here's the
save.
on edit, I forgot to add: the worker to the East of Persepolis can either do some chopping to aidd in Hanging Gardens construction or go and connect Gems. I'd prefer the chopping personally.
And because the +1 trade routes will be in effect in every city immediately, I prefer currency most of the time.
Most of the time, there are better buildings (or military) to build IMHO, and markets are very expensive for what they do. When I need +commerce buildings, I often have banking already and build banks instead (happiness can often be improved by trading resources, which I'm doing anyway to get allies). 
