Players hold the role of merchants involved in the commerce of spices with the East Indies in the XVII century. Each merchant is a member of a number of different Merchantile Companies: it is therefore important to achieve the best position in the hierarchies at the right time, when the profit from the expedition is divided among them, either by monopoly of a single company or by shares of different companies. The same cards are used in three ways: to gain the control of a company on a certain harbour, to struggle for the status inside of a company, and finally as trade goods to collect to dispatch orders.