For every worker of a player's colour in the FOOD row of the King's city, the player gets 1 food (delivered to a city or production spot controlled by the player, that's river connected, of that player's choice) at the start of each year (Spring phase)
Ditto the POWER and MATERIALS rows.
This is a partial answer to players running out of resources if they contribute lots to the capital (unbalancing the careful goods economy)
Another partial answer would be to limit buying their 4th city until round 4. And maybe allow a 5th city to be purchased in round 6.