I have always been interested in medieval economics. In 1st grade, I remember learning about the three field crop rotation system used on medieval manors and I was hooked. over the years, I've attempted to make games that included early European trade. Harold's Saga: the unification of Norway, Erinn (a game about ancient Ireland), Pounds Crowns and Marks (a straight out trade game), and others that never even got played. Merchant Adventurers is yet another attempt to play out trade from that distant time. I want a few things out of MA. It has to be fast, so that a full game is done in four hours or less. The rules need to be simple, in fact the rules should be obvious to anyone who grew up in a capitalist society. The players should be the ones to run the game, not a referee and certainly not the rule book. This is a game about business, where almost anything is legal between two consenting adults! Lastly, the rules should encourage players to act in an historical manner but not require them to do so. Victory conditions can be ignored if so desired to have a fun game. GAME COMPONENTS COMMODITIES 20 grains of corn (or some suitable seed) 20 cotton balls 10 small pieces of cloth 10 silver painted rocks (gravel does nicely) 10 marbles (ie luxury) MONEY 60 nickels (now called Ducats or Piasters) 50 pennies (now called Crowns or Marks) 1 pad of scratch paper (now called Bills of Exchange) 1 pen for the Banker to write bills with STATUS 6 tokens to represent the players position on the status scale MAP BOARD 1 hand drawn map of Europe with commodities and status scale on it 1 hand drawn map of the bank for deposits and bills 1 six sided die to determine if goods are lost in transit and what the commodity supply is each turn ORDER OF PLAY A.Players decide which part of Europe they wish to be. The area played determines which commodity that player produces. B. Place the commodities in front of the Flemish player. C. Place the players status tokens at poor. D.Place 10 Ducats in the bank for each player except for the Italian Banker who gets 5 Ducats and 25 Crowns. E. You are now ready to start the game. 1. Each player rolls for the amount of his commodity produced this turn, as is spelled out on the map of Europe. 2. The Flemish player places commodities on the map, so that they can be traded. 3. The players have a furious trading session. 4. The Italian Banker rolls to see which goods are lost in transit. 5. The Italian Banker settles up all Bills of Exchange. 6. The Players consume commodities and either raise or drop in status. 7. Repeat. PRICES 1 Ducat = 5 Crowns Commodities are worth whatever the players will pay for them. Bills of Exchange and other loans cost from 1 to 3 crowns as set by the banker. MAP OF EUROPE PRODUCTION OF COMMODITIES Each player controls a certain commodity (except for Italy which has a monopoly on banking). At the beginning of each turn the players roll six side die/dice to determine the amount of each commodity that is produced. Each player needs to obtain and consume these commodities in order to move up the status scale. At the same time he must also increase his monetary worth in terms of hard (ie coin) cash. The Flemish player places the commodities produced on the map in their respective countries. The Flemish player must make a decision on how much cloth he wants to make. His roll tells only the maximum he can make. To make cloth he must use up/destroy tokens of wool purchased in a previous turn. One token of wool for one token of cloth. Obviously this means that the Flemish player can not make any cloth on the first turn of the game since he does not start off with any wool. TRADING The players can start trading as soon as all the commodities are on the board. They can organize this as they wish. It can be a screaming match or a quiet orderly proceeding. The players are only required to settle three things: 1. What is being traded, 2. What the price is, and 3. How it is being paid for. Players can exchange commodity for commodity - ie barter. They can exchange commodity for hard cash - le primitive trade. or they can pay the banker 1 to 3 Crowns for a Bill of Exchange, which not only pays the bill but also provides insurance on the payment since the banker must pay if the goods are lost in transit! BILLS OF EXCHANGE The Italian player does not have a commodity to sell like the other players. Instead they are in the business of selling money! The Medici banker sells other players Bills of Exchange for a price of from 1 to 3 crowns. The exact price of the Bill is up to the banker since with each Bill he writes he is assuming a certain degree of risk. Consequently a Bill for 10 Crowns will likely cost more than one for 2 Crowns. (Say 3 for the first one and only 1 for the second). Bills of Exchange are a good deal for the seller of a commodity since they ensure that they will be paid for their goods. Direct exchanges of commodities or coin are subject to being lost in transit. With a Bill, the goods can be lost and the seller still gets his money. The banker pays the bill! What!?! The banker pays if goods get lost in transit? What about the buyer? The buyer paid the banker from 1 to 3 crowns to take the risk of losing money due to bad luck. The buy doesn't have to pay more than that 1 to 3 (a premium) if the ship is lost at sea. But then again he does not get the goods either. He Is just out a Crown or two. The is in effect maritime Insurance (which historically the Medici also sold). If a deal does go through then the buyer pays the seller the agreed on price in a simple bank transfer -- i.e. no risk involved of losing money. WRITING BILLS OF EXCHANGE Only the banker can write bills. They look just like IOU's. For example...England 5 Crowns. This means that England owe whoever holds that bill 5 crowns (or 1 Ducat) in coin. It is kind of like a bank issuing paper money that says "The Bank of England agrees to pay the bearer of this note 5 marks of silver on demand." Say that the above 5 crown Bill was to pay for a grain deal between England and the Baltics. The Balts sold 3 units of grain to England for 1 Ducat (5 crs). The Balts insisted that the payment be made in a Bill of Exchange, so they turn to the banker. The Medici agrees to write the bill for the price of 1 crown, which he immediately removes from the account of England (so the full price of the grain was really 6 Crowns total. The banker writes the bill and gives it to the Baltic player who sets it and the goods traded to the side to be settled up latter. They then go back for some more trading. Note that the banker can write Bills for himself at effectively no charge since he pays the bill either way it goes. LOST IN TRANSIT Once all the trading is done the banker starts making rolls to see which goods are lost at sea or misplaced along the road. The banker rolls one six sided die for every commodity or coin that is moved. If he rolls a 6 then the item is lost. If that item was covered by a Bill of Exchange then the banker will be out some money. If the goods are lost in an exchange where a Bill was used then the holder of the Bill crosses out the name on the note since the banker is now responsible for it. When the rolling is done, then the goods are moved to their new owners. The Bank Map Each square with a countries name in it is the bank account of that country. This is where all the players hard cash starts the game. The player can move his money out of the bank to use in direct cash payments (and take the risk of it being lost) or keep his money in the bank and make direct payments by moving the coin from account to account (which still Involves risk in transit). The rules, the mint and the bank are all optional rules that give the banker more options to do with his money. SETTLING UP BILLS OF EXCHANGE: THE BALANCE OF TRADE Settling up Bills is how the banker earns his money on those exchanges that do not get lost in transit. The players turn In their outstanding Bills to their bank accounts. The banker then begins making cash transfers to settle up the accounts. Settling up an account may mean transferring coin from one account to another. But it is also quite likely that many Bills can be settled by purely as a paper exchange. For Example ... England holds a Bill from Flanders for 2 Ducats (10 crs). Flanders holds a Bill from The Porte (Turkey) for 1 Ducat and another from Germany for another 1 Ducat. The banker can look at the Bills as though they were paper money. This allows Flanders to "pay" his debt to England with the Bills from The Porte and Germany. When Flanders pays its debt to England, then the Bill England holds on Flanders is removed and destroyed. The Bills may be shifted again to pay off other loans until no more shifting can be done and the remainder must be paid for in hard cash exchanges. These hard cash payments represent the balance of trade. A country that buys more than It sells will end up sending its hard cash out of the country. This is what lead to Mercantilism, the policy that said countries should try be self sufficient (by having colonies to make what they could not) and try to get hold of the silver and gold of other nations. The process of settling up Bills is a tricky one. Consequently the banker player should be a swift thinking clever person. Remember, you are taking on the role of the Medici, a more cleaver family there never was. CONSUMPTION AND STATUS The purpose of any economy is to meet the physical needs of its people. Consuming goods is how that is met. Players who meet their people's needs rise in status. Players who fail to meet their people's needs fall in status. The people have a need for all of the commodities produced. They eat grain. Wool is used to cloth the poor. Cloth is used to dress the rich. Silver is used for ornaments and decoration. And Luxury provides the spices for the food. obviously some of these goods carry more status than others. So while consuming one silver gives +1 status, consuming one luxury gives a +2. If a player consumes two or more of a commodity that ranks as conspicuous consumption. This blatant show of wealth raises a iplayers status quickly. But beware, not consuming any of a given commodity in a given turn lowers ones status. Commodity None used One used Conspicuous consumption Grain -5 +1 +3 Wool -1 +1 +2 Cloth -2 +1 +4 Silver -2 +1 +4 Luxury -3 +2 +6 The status value of consuming certain items along with the relative supply of those items are the factors which will determine the cost of items. Rather than have the game rules impose prices on the players, this allows Adam Smith's "Invisible hand" to shape the going rates. MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF GOODS The maximum amount of goods and coin active on the board at any one time is set by the beginning totals. Namely: 20 grain, 20 wool, 10 cloth, 10 silver, 10 luxury, 55 Ducats, and 25 Crowns. WINNING THE GAME Merchant Adventurers should be able to go through between ten to fifteen turns in four hours of play. (This means a turn can last between 15 to 25 minutes). But the game can be stopped at any time. The winner is the player who has both the highest status and the most money in hard cash. In case of ties the English player wins because that is the nation in which amateur wargaming began so they should win for coming up with such a good idea! OPTIONAL RULES The above rules should be enough for players to have a good game. But for those bankers who do not have enough to do already here are some more things you can do. THE MINT The banker can increase the supply of hard cash by minting silver into coin. He does this by buying silver and putting it into the mint. When it comes time to roll for transit loss, the banker rolls to see how well his mint did. 1 Make 3 times the amount of silver in Crowns. 2-4 Make 2 times the amount of silver in Crowns. 5 Make 1 times the amount of silver in Crowns. 6 The silver is lost due to theft. The maximum amount of money in the game is raised to the full 60 Ducats and 50 Crowns. But watch it, don't they say that raising the money supply leads to inflation? One can just as easily raise the money supply by issuing more paper money. THE BANK The banker can open up another part of the bank to begin taking deposits for Interest and making long term loans. DEPOSITS Taking deposits of money from other players for interest is how banks get the money to issue long term loans on. It is done by the banker convincing a player to putting money in the bank for a certain period of time. The banker writes him a note that says when he can withdraw the money and how much he gets (always greater than the amount he first put in). For example... Flanders decides to deposit 6 Crowns in the bank for 1hour of game time (3 or 4 turns). The banker negotiates a Bank Note with him that is worth 10 Crowns. He writes it out ... Bank Note 10 Crowns at 4:00. He gives this note to the Flemish player. The Flem can hold on to the note or sell it (at a discount, le less that 10 crs) to someone else. At 4:00, whoever holds the note can collect the money from the bank. LOANS Long term loans are sort of the reverse of deposits. They are how banks make money off of other people. The banker gives the player an amount of money now and the bank gets a note that says that the debtor owes the bank more money at a certain time. For example ... England was hit hard in the last turn. He needs money to stay in the game. So he goes to the bank and borrows 20 Crowns due in one hour. The English player agrees to pay 30 Crowns. The banker writes... Loan England 30 Crowns at 4:00 It is possible for the bank to sell someone's debt just as Bank Notes can be sold. BAD DEBT If a person falls to pay back his loan at the appointed time then bad things happen. The banker takes control of the defaulting players commodity, running all that players business for him until the balance of the debt is paid. This actually happened during the middle ages when the English wool concession was run by Italian bankers due to a defaulted loan. TIME LIMITS I feel that loans and deposits are best made for a length of play time rather than for a number of turns. It is too easy to lose track of which turn it is, but any watch can tell a person how much more time they have to pay the loan. It adds an element of pressure as well. It is in the debtor player's interest to go through as many turns as possible before the deadline. AFTERWARD I am not certain that Merchant Adventurers will work. At this time I've not had a chance to try it out. It would probably not be a good Idea to play it with that MBA friend of mine. He would beat me too badly. But the game rules itself have not given me a head ache in writing them. Quite the contrary, I would love to get a group together to try this sucker out! Back to Experimental Games Group # 21 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com