I was thinking about the whole food/gold distribution issues being talked about and had a thought. Suppose that for each realm the total food produced in all regions is totaled up, the total food needed by all regions is totaled up and the two numbers are compared. If the food produced is equal to the amount needed, everyone is fed. If it exceeds the amount needed, everyone is fed and the extra goes into a central storage under the control of the Banker. If there is not enough, the missing amount is split amongst all regions and the regions suffer the effect of the shortage (a 10 region realm is missing 100 bushels so each realm is treated as having 10 fewer bushels than needed and the appropriate penalties are applied). This all happens automatically in the background. At the same time Cities have their gold production reduced and rural gold production is increased to reflect the spending/earning going on.
The idea is to keep food producing regions important but remove the need to do much in managing it. If your realm does not produce enough food you can either try to increase the production of regions, buy another realms surplus or capture more land/get rid of land. All the intra-realm trading still occurs but is abstracted. It is simply assumed that the food is being redistributed, that the rural lords are cashing in and the city lords are spending. It all just happens. Region maintenance is still important as loss in production will harm the realm. Player directed trading still happens on an inter-realm level. It also Gives the Banker something more direct to do.
