You rule a small realm: a hundred working souls, and above them one Owner, whose manufactory makes the only good besides bread. There is no money here. Bread is wage, price, and treasury alike.
You inherit a hunting lodge and a modest granary. Make it Versailles.
The people work the fields, the manufactory, or the crown's building site — and each year they drift toward whichever pays the most bread. Each year you set three levers: the food levy (a share of the harvest into your granary — or, turned the other way, a dole of grain released to the people), the goods levy (a share of the manufactory's wares, sold for bread), and the mason's wage you offer at the building site. Masons keep the palace standing first; only the hands to spare raise new walls. Offer a wage the granary cannot pay, and the men you tempted drift back to the fields.
Bread is life. Every soul must have a loaf each year, however it is paid for. The well-fed multiply; the starved die. The land bears what it can.
The reign can end in three ways. In triumph: you raise Versailles. In defeat: your people starve away to nothing, or your palace crumbles and leaves the crown homeless. Or in the fullness of time: after seventy-two years, you pass away in whatever palace you have built.
Set the levers, close the year. The levy fills the granary; the granary pays the masons and, in famine, the dole. Masons keep the palace standing first, then build. People follow bread; the land bears what it can.
| last year | this year | |
| The common people | — | 100 |
| The palace stands at | — | — |
| The harvest fed | — | — |
| The granary holds | — | — |
| Machines in the manufactory | — | — |
| Price of the good | — |
| Bread on the table | — |
| Goods produced | — |
| — taken by the crown, sold for bread | — |
| — sold by the Owner: his workers’ wages | — |
| — sold by the Owner: his own income | — |
| — kept by the Owner: invested in new machines | — |
| In the fields | — |
| In the manufactory | — |
| At the building site | — |
| In the fields | — |
| In the manufactory | — |
| At the building site | — |
| Bread eaten, each worker | — |
| Bread eaten, the Owner | — |
| Goods enjoyed, each worker | — |
| Goods enjoyed, the Owner | — |
| Each worker’s welfare | — |
| The Owner’s welfare | — |
| Opened with | — |
| Food levy | — |
| Goods sold | — |
| Dole released | — |
| The creditors | — |
| Masons’ wages | — |
| Closed with | — |