I hacked together a small webpage which calculates and compares the gold cost per research point given different researchers/magic scales/number of turns.
Here it is, in the hope that someone else might find it useful:
I'm suprised that there is something that is actually worse than Niefel Jarl
Addendum:
It also seems that Niefelheim is the worst possible nation (Excluding AE and SG ermor )for magic research in a non-drain scale... A VERY good reson to take some magic.
[ April 12, 2004, 10:34: Message edited by: Tuna-Fish ]