[Arralen]

@ IndyPendant
Read up "Recruitment: restrictions" in your manual. (p. 59 in the first edition, maybe 61 in the 2nd)
I hope you have one ...

@ Autochthon
Ressources are meant to reflect the econ capacity of a province in very general terms - tools, workforce, raw materials, but also time used to make things and grow up things (like recruits and mounts). Obviously, you cannot run your economy on more than 100% capacity.

The impossiblity to turn e.g. surplus ressources into gold was a deliberate design decision: There is no and will never be an extended econ simulation in Dom3 - the game is about fighting, not building. (That's why there are no additional buildings for towns, etc). Placement of castles, labs and temples is part of the strategical (fighting) decisions, not some poor attempt of econ simulation.
Furthermore, ressource are meant to be the cap for local (provincial) production: You can't levy any numbers of troops from a province in a given time (month!), no matter how much gold you have.

For the same reason, there's no trade - gold revenue from trade (tax) is "inherent" in population.

And you're wrong about ressources not being usable outside of a province: Build a castle next to it and use 50% of it's ressources in the neigbouring province. (What actually simulates some local trade going on, btw. ...)

It's IMNSHO a design error that most (mid-late game) units only cost negligible to no ressources (mages,summons), as this basically renders the whole ressources thing moot, for some nations even right from the start. What you can tell from the fact that "Sloth" is a good scale choice for most nations, what it shouldn't be.
E.g. mages should cost a fortune not only in gold but also in ressources - not because they need that much plate armors, but because of the infrastructure and the consumables you have to spend to "raise" only a single one of them (mage schools, universities, libraries, the whole paper industry, all those tailors making fancy -and costly- robes instead of workwear for your working classes ...) Don't think this is going to change unless someone does a Mega-Mod ..

Another design error is the fact that ressources are actually only an indicator for the availability of raw materials, especially iron and lumber: they are heavily dependand on the terrain -you get only get them in woods and mountains, but not in highly populated grasslands- .. so there's no sign of "workforce simulation" to be seen. Anyhow, I think it should cost lots of fire and construction wood to "grow up" a mage ...