Go to folder "..\Program Files\Playlogic\Age of Pirates 2\Program\characters" 
and find the "RPGUtilite.c" file. Open it in notepad with administrator rights
(for those running vista). 

Search for the extension called "void initMainCharacterItem()" (with the " ") 
Just below those lines you can edit the starting money by changing 

   pchar.money = 500 (for an adventurer) to 
   pchar.money = 99999999 

and then the adventurer class will start with this amount of money. If you scroll
up a bit instead you can edit the starting stats of the characters. 

It could read something like: 

 case "Merchant":
 SetSPECIAL(ch, 4,9,5,8,9,3,4);
 break; 
 just change all those numbers to 10, so it reads: 
 case "Merchant":
 SetSPECIAL(ch, 10,10,10,10,10,10,10);
 break; 

Now the merchant class will start with 10 (max) in all stats.