$1:
Ok.....drop all pending trades EXCEPT the one where you get Iron and Silver. Your coal plus his Iron makes Steel.....a handy little bonus resource that is needed to obtain other bonus resources. You may want to consider dropping the trade for Sugar and Silver. If you get the trade for Iron and Silver and you dont need Sugar for anything then you might as well open up another trade slot and try and get some Gems from someone...that would give you another bonus resource.
I already accepted the wine/iron trade deal and I got the steel. Oh well.. Jeebuzland is doing well.
Here's a question about your nifty $$ for tech scheme - if I was to buy 50 tech now and sell it for whatever amount, doesn't it mean that my tech is going to cost a lot more when I eventually do begin to purchase it for myself? The pricing is not explained very clearly on the CN website. It seems that each level of tech costs $9,500... Does that mean that the 2nd level tech costs $19,000? The third, $28,500, etc...? If I was to buy 50 tech and then sell them, wouldn't my first tech that I keep cost a pantload? I don't know that it is a wise decision...
W.