1. Lay out the game board on the table. Note the border between Germany and Denmark runs roughly horizontally through the middle of the board.

2. The layout of the event bar on the right edge is described on the next page.

3. Put the sorted goods and coins as well as the pest markers within reach next to the game board.

4. The Noble Goods are sorted in two stacks (Food/Tools), shuffled separately and put here on their corresponding space.

5. Set the two Currency markers to 1 on each of the scales for Danish Kroner and German Thalers.

6. Draw 2 random Scoring cards and lay them face-up here.

There are goals on the Scoring cards, for which players will be given points at the end of the game. Left-over Scoring cards are put back into the box.

7. Shuffle the Bonus cards and put them here in a stack face-down.

The top two cards are turned over and placed here next to the stack.

8. All Countinghouse cards are placed beside the game board face-up.

9. Each player chooses a tableau face-down and takes all matching game materials in their colour (4x Countinghouse, Ship, Mill, Upgrade markers: 2x Cart and 1x Spokewheel, 3 Loan markers, Oxcart meeple and Movement marker).

Please see “The players´ tableaus” on page 15 for details.

10. Each player puts their Oxcart meeple and one Countinghouse on their starting city on the game board. The starting city can be found in the top left corner of each tableau. When only 2 or 3 players are in the game, put one Countinghouse from each of the unused colours on their corresponding starting cities.

11. Determine a starting player. He takes the Starting player marker – it will be passed clockwise to the next player at the end of each round.