Rising industrial barons attempt to profit by skillfully trading shares of important wares to increase their wealth. Due to their status, they have access to inside information to aid them in their investment decisions.

However, other barons have inside information as well, so they must react to the investments of other barons while also taking into account their own knowledge in order to outwit and outsmart the other barons through tactics and intuition.

However, personal wealth is not all it takes to rise to the top. Hie barons also have a reputation to uphold! In order to gain a well-respected reputation, barons must be unselfish with their donations to charity. The selfish baron that donates too little of his hard earned wealth is out of the running for top baron, regardless of his personal fortune.

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 6 Price Markers
• 5 Charity Boards
• 5 Card Holders
• 1 Start Player Marker
• 54 Market Cards
• 60 Share Cards
• Money
• Rulebook

Setup

1. 1. Put the Game Board in the middle of the table. This board is where the price of the 6 commodities will be tracked.

   Put the Price Markers on the "40" space of each track. This is the starting value for each commodity. The commodities are Coal (black), Wheat (yellow), Coffee (red), Rubber (brown). Tea (green). Salt (white).

2. Place as many Card Holders as there are number of players in the game on the table. They will hold the Market Cards.

   Place the holders between each player so that each player will able to see the cards in two holders, one to his left and one to his right.

   setup for 4 players

   
   
3. 

   Shuffle the 54 Market Cards and deal 8 to each player. Each player puts cards in the card holder to his left. It will be helpful to sort the cards by commodity type when placing them in the holders.

   Players should be able to view the cards on the holders to both his right and left. The remaining unused market cards are set aside for now, but do not put them away as they will be needed later.

4. Each players places a Charity Board in front of himself to track his charitable donations during the game. It has four spaces for placing share cards, as well as a space to place money for selling these shares at the end of both game rounds.

   This is to help keep charitable donations separate from personal money and investments.

5. Sort the 60 Share Cards by type into piles and place them near the game board.

6. Sort the money by denomination and place it near the game board. Choose a player to be the banker, who deals each player a starting amount of 300.

7. The youngest player is the start player and gets the Start Player Marker.

Object of the Game

The player with the most money at the end of the game wins. However, the player that donated the least money to charity, regardless of how much money he has made, is eliminated before the winner is determined.

Game Play

The game is played in 2 rounds. Each round consists of 4 turns and each turn is composed of 2 phases:

1. Stock Phase
2. Market Manipulation Phase

1. Stock Phase

Every player, starting from the first player and proceeding in clockwise order, has the option to perform none, one, or both of the following actions:

• Purchase OR sell shares (not both!).
• Place 1 of the shares he owns on his charity board.

Purchasing Share Cards: A player may purchase from 1 to 3 share cards. He takes them from the supply and pays the current value to the bank. The +purchased shares arc kept face down besides him.

Note: Players cannot purchase shares of wares which are in the "0 " spot on the game board.

Selling Share Cards: A player may sell from 1 to 3 share cards from those he owns. The share cards are returned back to their respective piles and the player takes money as indicated by the current value of the respective wares (i.e. the position of the price markers on the game board) from the bank.

Example: Player A decides to purchase share cards and buys one coal share for 80 and also two rubber shares for 70 each. He takes the appropriate share cards from the supply and pays 80+ 70+ 70 = 220 to the bank.

Player B then decides to sell share cards. He sells a salt for the price of 150 and also a share of tea for 130. He places the two shares back into the supply and is paid 150+130 =280 from the hank.

Player C decides he does not wish to buy or sell shares this turn.

Place a Share on the Charity Board: A player places, face down, 1 of the shares he owns on his charity board.

Important: Shares which are placed on the charity board cannot be sold until the end of the round and don't provide money toward winning the game. They represent shares purchased to donate to charity.

At the end of the game, the player who donated the least money to charity will be automatically eliminated, regardless of how much money he has earned for himself.

Example:

Player A has decided to place a share on his charity hoard this turn, so he takes one of his share cards (it may even be one he just purchased) and places it face-down on his charity hoard.

This card will be sold at the end of the round with the proceeds staying on his charity board, not counting toward his personal wealth.

Market Manipulation Phase

Each player, starting from the start player and following the clockwise order, must choose one market card to be played from one card holder (either the one on his left or the one on his right) and one market card to be halved from the other. Choosing both cards from the same card holder is not allowed.

Playing a card: The player reveals the chosen card and moves the marker of the relative ware as many squares as stated by the number on the card. The card is then discarded.

Halving a card: The player reveals the chosen card and moves the marker of the relative ware as many squares as the half of what is stated by the number on the card. The card is then discarded.

Note: A ware can never be worth more or less than the values printed on the stock exchange board. If a card would require marker to be moved past either end of the board, simply move it as far as possible.

At the completion of the market manipulation phase, the turn ends. Pass the start player pawn to the left and begin a new turn.

Example: It is Player As turn to perform market manipulation. He currently owns 2 shares of salt, so he selects the +6 salt market card and adjusts the price of salt up 6 spaces in hopes of selling it for a large profit on his next turn.

For the second part of his market manipulation, he chooses to half the value of the +6 coffee market card, as he knows that other players are currently holding coffee, and he does not want the price of coffee to go up by the full amount of the card.

End of the First Round

The round ends after all cards in the card holders are played. Then, all players reveal the shares on their charity boards and receive money according to the current value of the wares.

These shares are returned to the bank and the money earned in this way is placed on the charity board.

Note: This money is frozen until the end of the game and cannot be used. This phase is useful for the players to check who is at risk to be eliminated.

The entire market deck is shuffled and each player draws 8 cards and arranges them in the card holder to his left, as in the first round. All price markers remain in their current positions. Now begin the second turn.

End of the Game

At the end of the second round all players sell the shares on their charity board and take the money according to the current value.

This money is added to the charity money earned at the end of the first round. Whoever has the least charity money is automatically eliminated. In case of tie, all tied players arc eliminated. All charity money is now returned to the bank.

Finally, the remaining players sell the shares they own at the current price. Whoever has the most money is the winner.

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