Cheat mode:
Hold Ctrl + Shift, then enter one of the following codes:

booty        2000 gold   
timber       100 lumber    
goape        Enraged pirate    
goforit      Selected prisoner tries to escape    
freebuild    Disable normal building rules   
normbuild    Enable normal building rules   
britinv      British invasion    
frenchinv    French invasion    
spaininv     Spanish invasion    
loseit       Lose game   
winit        Win game   

Thanks to Revolution reader Harvey Wallbanger!