which is why gold as a method of transaction in this game is stupid.

The gold standard was useful for one reason: You could have an ass load of "worth" simply by having a few cubic feet of gold. with that few cubic feet of gold, you could buy thousands of military units, 10,000 cubic feet of lumber, etc.

As this game is so totally opposed to realistic methodology, your cubic feet of gold are worth .5 cubic feet of lumber.

Which is why gold sucks in this game. Personally, I'd say they need to do the smart thing for the game, half the income from taxation, half the gold cost for heroes, and double the gold cost for research. Now suddenly, people wont spend gold willy nilly, meaning market goods will have to lower their price to make sales. everything balances out.