What Is The Most Effective Way To Earn Money Without Raiding Villages?

While I agree that tournaments one of the fastest ways of making quick cash, you are not guaranteed to win and you also need 500+ to bet 100 each round. If you find a tournament that suits your combat style go for it. However there are other ways of making money. In one game I decide to play as a merchant, I accepted all the quests to collect taxes for lords, you can make like 6K from each. But when I collected the taxes I didn't bring them to the Lord strait away, I invested it buying goods and building factories usually the one that cost 10K. When I made enough profit I payed back the Lords.

You could do the same but invest in armor and weapons.

You will lose opinion with the towns and villages, -5 opinion, when you collect the taxes.

You can earn a lot of money by finding tournaments and entering them. The tournament reward is usually not too great, but its possible to earn a few thousand denars by betting on yourself. If you place a max bet on yourself each round, you can earn up to 4000.

To find tournaments, go to a city and ask the arena master if there are any.