Today I played a little game with the British who now own all of Gaul and Germania. I wanted Narbo Martius but was not prepared to fight a full scale war with such a large empire. I'm having a major problem with too few family members compared to the number of settlements I control nevermind fight in the field. Instead of causing a war with the British, I almost forced the Spanish into declaring war against me and I quickly captured Osca before trading the province to the Brits in return for Narbo Martius.

This worked perfectly so that my empire had no isolated provinces (that weren't islands). My financial empire continues to grow at a steady rate as others fluctuate up and down