I have recently gone back to playing CivIII (always go back to the favorites after trying the crappy games) and after starting a game, I noticed that I didn't seem to be doing too well...seems like it took forever to research anything...
I then did a little experiment: I started a game on Chieftain level, created my first city, and set my first research target (to Writing) which the game says will take 40 turns. I then changed my science spending level to 100% (doubling the commerce going to science from 2 to 4) and the game says my reasearch will take...40 turns! I then set science spending to 20% (from 4 commerce to 1) and the game says my reasearch will take...40 turns!
I did try waiting a turn to see if the time to complete the research would change, but it never did.
40 turns is the maximum to research anything. Even if 'writing' would cost you a 1000 science beakers (points) and you only produce 1 you still will research it in 40 turns.
Writing for example btw is more expensive then the others you're able to do.
See what happens if you go for something else. Remember to set it back though or you will loose the beakers you have invested in writing so far.
Hope this helps, if not, ask more questions
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