Should I sell coal and iron, or should I manufacture it into steel first and then sell steel?

[Floater]

Right now I am very poor

[Eligos]

Generally speaking for new nations it is best to produce raw resources until you have the ability to grab a project that boosts manufactured resource production rates. This very much excludes food, don't produce food until you are super big. You should max out each raw individually before producing another one.

All of that being said, this is all stuff an alliance is there to help teach you. There are more nuances than that and its probably more so important to have an alliance that can help teach you the game and fund you through your early stages by teaching you that at 3 cities its more important that you be raiding than producing whatever. You would be much better off reaching out to your alliance about these kind of questions than the forums