The Tasks of an Economic Society

According to Heilbroner the tasks of an economic society are (1) to organize a system that will assure the production of enough goods and services for survival and (2) to create distribution of the products so more production can occur. I am trying to keep these tasks in mind while I am creating and running my civilization. I am following the first task of assuring the production of goods and services by locating my cities near resources and on or near rivers and coastlines, creating many farms, cottages, lumber mills, mines, watermills, workshops, and plantations. I also and creating many workers and settlers to work in these areas and make the products of goods and food. I am following the second task of creating distribution for my products to be able to make more by building many roads, boats, and trading networks. This time I am also using my manual to help out. This should aid me in making the right decisions for success in my civilization. By following Heilbroner's as well as Sid Meier's manual's advice I think I should do pretty good in this game this go around.
In the real world it is important for societies to follow the same two tasks as mentioned above. These are the basics for survival and if a population is unable to meet these minimum requirements then they will not last very long. This was explained by Richard Diamond, when he talks of the people of New Guinea. They are not able to produce enough food to distribute it there for there was no surplus and growth of the population. The population only did was barley enough to survive. This population was a living society but far from an economic society.

If at first you don't succeed try and then try again!

Ok... well I was successful in my first game, not so successful in my second game and this is going to be round three. I am hoping that third time is a charm :). I am going to try to not get my civilization quite so big so fast this time. I think it will be in my benifit to have fewer, stronger cities than a lot of cities that I have not a clue as to what is going on within them. I choose the continent of Europe, being the English empire under the rule of Elizabeth. I choose this area because of the beneifits of the water all the way around and the limited ability for other civilizaitons to attack me. One fear that I have is that I will be left behind technologically because England is seperated from the rest of Europe. During my second game I really didn't try (actually I was trying to prove a point and fail It worked), but during my first game which I ended up making it all the way though I really tried. It was confusing and I didn't really know what to expect so I think I won on accident haha. This time I want to win because I know I made the right decisions. I am going to focus on building up the agriculture as well as my civilization's economy and technology in the hopes of become a powerful civilizaiton yet again.
Being located seperate from the rest of Europe has helped out England in the past, in real life, so hopefully it will work the same way for me, in my game.

Location Location Location

Through my civilization game playing time I have learned that location is key in the success of a civilization. This reminds me of the known slogan of "location, location, location". The location that I am specifically talking about is waterfront. There are many beneifits of having a civilization near the water, the most important being: fertile land, maritime food and resources, trade transportation, and security. Land near a body of water tends to have more nutrients and tends to be more fertile. This is key to a good amount of farming land. With fertile soil a farm will flurish, allowing the city to obtain food surplus. If a city is not placed near a body of water then the crops are not as flurished, meaning that the soil isn't as rich. Case in point, a river bed is a much more desireable place to establish a city than a desert. This is why a key point in the game is to choose a continent that has a lot of opportunities for good land. Another feature of waterfront is maritime food and resources. This is specifically fishing and gathering of sea creatures such as fish, crab, shrip, lobster, etc. These goods can be consumed and/or tranded for other desired goods. Along with food supply, waterfront allows for easy transportation. This can be good for trade and transport as well as miliarty. This feature can be imperative in the economy of a civilization, providing easier trade networking and easier shipping of goods. Having bodies of water for trade allows the civilization to trade with not just the other civilizations of the area but in other continents because of the ability to get to them. This can provide your civilization with a stable economy but also with new technology and resources that they might not have been able to obtain because of the different resources availiable in different continents. The other side of the transportation concept is military. With water ways it is easy to transport a large military force to other places at the same time and often at a faster rate than if they were to travel by land. One last benifit of having waterfront is security. This is true because you can have a navy that protects your waterfront from invaders but mainly because if you have the water on one side of your civilization that means that you are on the end of a continent. This is important because if you were in the center then you would be surrounded by neighboring civilizations, making you easier pray for an enemy to surround you. Being on the end allows you to not become surrounded.