Also, when playing tall, you are more likely to hit more golden ages.) Golden ages last 50% longer (during golden ages, you generate more gold.Unique tile improvement (Kabash) adds gold to desert tiles.Extra gold per trade route with other civilizations.There are several good options for producing a strong economy. Remind them to not do anything to marshes and floodplains as the Polder is one of the better improvements. Note: since you mention playing with your friends, playing the Dutch can be useful as you can build Polders on your friends' territories. Try to site your cities near oases and Oil resources (though the latter is pretty much luck of the draw until you get Biology) to get that precious +2 Gold per tile. Given that you gain so much gold income from the Bazaar, it's best that you rush it as quickly as possible.

The UA allows your trade routes to extend further and the UB is one of the best, if not the best, for gold income. Arabia is most likely your best bet for high gold income without investing a lot in multiple cities.

If you're not the empire-building type, getting high gold income will be rather difficult as Brave New World has greatly reduced gold income from tiles to push you to use the new trade route mechanic. Send out a Legion with every Settler and have them build roads back to the capital once the new City is built. Rome is actually very good for this as one of their UUs, the Legion, can construct roads, allowing you to build and connect far-flung cities without the risk of Workers being captured by Barbarians.

Brave new world civ 5 difference