Fondaco – A Venetian Merchant's Tale

In the Mediterranean of 1400, between wars, corsairs and rival companies, every voyage is an adventure. Become an influential merchant and make your name known in every market from Seville to Damascus, from Alexandria to Lyon.

Get there first

No price is random. Behind every rise there is a failed harvest, a war, a rival who bought before you. The grain that was worthless yesterday is worth its weight in gold today: work that out first and the fortune is yours.
From unknown to merchant power

Open a fondaco abroad, a merchant's home in foreign lands. Then another, and another. Build workshops, turn grain into flour and flour into bread, fill your holds and ship it all to whoever pays most. Snatch contracts from the guild, bid at auction for cargoes seized from corsairs. When the routes become too many, hand them to your captains.
Wars don't ask your permission
Venice and Genoa fight over the sea, ports close overnight, corsairs sail with the blessing of crowns. Constantinople, under siege, is starving and asks for your grain. Side with a power and climb its ranks to patrician, knight or count, or stay neutral and do business with everyone.
Pay, surrender or open fire

The toll costs ducats, surrender costs the cargo, battle can cost you the ship. If you choose to fight, wind and range decide everything: round shot for the hull, chain shot for the sails, grapeshot for the crew, then board.
The whole Mediterranean, city by city

Dock beneath the Doge's Palace, enter Constantinople in the shadow of Hagia Sophia, push your caravans into inland cities such as Milan, Seville or Damascus. Every city is waiting to be discovered, each with its own architecture, its own goods and its own prices.