Hackapell
Rhetorician
As everyone knows, in Civ 4, the ecomony allows you to do whatever you need to keep an empire running. From paying for matinence and colonial expenses to financing research, culture, and espionage, to paying unit upkeep to paying for civic upkeep, all these things are reliant on having a strong economy, which becomes more and more critical as you move up in level. Therefore, in this article I hope to outline some of the economies which people use and some examples and goals. Kinda like Sisiutil's trait rundown.
The Basic Economy
These 2 economies are the core of almost all of the other economic strategies, except perhaps trade route economy. The Cottage economy(CE) and Specialist Economy(SE) both have many loyal followers, and the battle rages on and on to determine which is superior.
And now, without further ado:
The Cottage Economy
The cottage economy, perhaps the most simple economy, involves laying down cottages, and lots of them, especially on rivers(as river tiles start with 1
and gain 1 
from levees). to acess cottages, one needs to reasearch pottery. any civ can use the CE, but Financial civs gain the greatest benefit from CE, so they are the prefered trait to have when using this economy. CE's greatest strength comes in the late renaissance and early industrial ages, as that is the time when the Cottage related civics(i.e. Free Speech,Emancipation, Universal suffrage) come into play and give your economy a boost, along with printing press, which also gives you more commerce. the economy is usually used for a more peaceful game, aiming for cultural or space-race victory, due to the fast output of either science or culture.
For more info(and for almost all economies), look to the ALC's and EMC/IC for assistance with the execution and strategical level of all economies, as well as some SG's and other games that relate to the economy, which I cite below:
Power of rush buy Mansa Immortal
The Specialist Economy
The specialist economy is the harder of the two basic economies to use, and the one with the most offshoots and different ways of play. I will get more in depth with that later, but this section will cover the basic SE as is generally understood. This economy is also refered to as the Food Economy(FE) by some, but the basic premise is that food can be used much more effectively to make production and science. Production via food is usually done by slavery, to directly convert food in the guise of population into raw hammers. Science is created via scientists rather than cottages, and the upshot of this is that you have become independent of the research slider(recall that the slider only converts commerce to beakers), and thus in theory can tech at a fairly steady rate with the slider at 0%. The use of Great scientists to bulb techs, generally along the liberalism path(i.e. paper, Philosophy, Education) allows you to spring ahed of your competition, giving you a tech lead that can lead to a lasting initiative that you can trade for the techs you may have skipped, should you need it. For this economy, Philo is often seen as the top trait, due to the faster output of GP, but Spiritual also allows you to switch civics as needed, so you can move into and out of slvery and caste system whenever you need to. SE is best used for early war, as the scientists produce science independent of the slider, therefore allowing your treasury to deal with the upkeep of your newly conquered lands.
By about the early industrial ages; SE will have lost alot of it's power, simply becuase techs are too big to bulb or research. At that point, you can either cottage up, or settle GS's in your super science city, and use that to push your economy through.
For more info:
SE: Surviving The Late Game
A Beginner's Guide to the Specialist Economy(SE)
Yet Another Immortal SE Walkthrough
The Basic Economy
These 2 economies are the core of almost all of the other economic strategies, except perhaps trade route economy. The Cottage economy(CE) and Specialist Economy(SE) both have many loyal followers, and the battle rages on and on to determine which is superior.
And now, without further ado:
The Cottage Economy
The cottage economy, perhaps the most simple economy, involves laying down cottages, and lots of them, especially on rivers(as river tiles start with 1
and gain 1 from levees). to acess cottages, one needs to reasearch pottery. any civ can use the CE, but Financial civs gain the greatest benefit from CE, so they are the prefered trait to have when using this economy. CE's greatest strength comes in the late renaissance and early industrial ages, as that is the time when the Cottage related civics(i.e. Free Speech,Emancipation, Universal suffrage) come into play and give your economy a boost, along with printing press, which also gives you more commerce. the economy is usually used for a more peaceful game, aiming for cultural or space-race victory, due to the fast output of either science or culture.For more info(and for almost all economies), look to the ALC's and EMC/IC for assistance with the execution and strategical level of all economies, as well as some SG's and other games that relate to the economy, which I cite below:
Power of rush buy Mansa Immortal
The Specialist Economy
The specialist economy is the harder of the two basic economies to use, and the one with the most offshoots and different ways of play. I will get more in depth with that later, but this section will cover the basic SE as is generally understood. This economy is also refered to as the Food Economy(FE) by some, but the basic premise is that food can be used much more effectively to make production and science. Production via food is usually done by slavery, to directly convert food in the guise of population into raw hammers. Science is created via scientists rather than cottages, and the upshot of this is that you have become independent of the research slider(recall that the slider only converts commerce to beakers), and thus in theory can tech at a fairly steady rate with the slider at 0%. The use of Great scientists to bulb techs, generally along the liberalism path(i.e. paper, Philosophy, Education) allows you to spring ahed of your competition, giving you a tech lead that can lead to a lasting initiative that you can trade for the techs you may have skipped, should you need it. For this economy, Philo is often seen as the top trait, due to the faster output of GP, but Spiritual also allows you to switch civics as needed, so you can move into and out of slvery and caste system whenever you need to. SE is best used for early war, as the scientists produce science independent of the slider, therefore allowing your treasury to deal with the upkeep of your newly conquered lands.
By about the early industrial ages; SE will have lost alot of it's power, simply becuase techs are too big to bulb or research. At that point, you can either cottage up, or settle GS's in your super science city, and use that to push your economy through.
For more info:
SE: Surviving The Late Game
A Beginner's Guide to the Specialist Economy(SE)
Yet Another Immortal SE Walkthrough
, but the main point of "SE" is just to produce 
, each worth ~1600
).
