Well Frogboy said something about it being hard to tell how the economy is functioning as of right now. Sadly i have not been able to play a long enough game in 1B to see it for myself without it crashing so i cant say ive seen it for myself.

I hope they decide to do something along the lines of "taxes" being transported in caravans to your capital city intermittently (so that they arent out randomly all the time, just going back and forth) and that food will only be transported from cities that have excess food to cities that are starving or stagnant. Same with other resources such as wood or iron. That way every caravan means something- a set amount of gold you will not recieve to your treasury, or iron that will not make it to a city. Instead of "oh you lost a caravan near Ixith, you permanently lose 8 gold/turn until you reastablish the trade route" it might say something like, "Bandits have destroyed a caravan that was transporting taxes from Ixith, totaling 123 gold, to your capital city, Dragonfell, and 15 iron ore to the town of Duranth". Imo, i think it would add more importance to caravans and trade in general.