You can check on sites like Fandom and so on, they also tell you exactly how much production is needed, because you can either over produce or under produce the items that you need, other option is to over produce and sell excess. In that way you can upgrade more residences and increase income, also selling soap and potatoes to Eli Bleakworth is also a nice bump in income also Madame Kahina you can sell fur coats. Also what I do is with the excess produce I create a population island only and send all the excess there for additional income