Companies and Shares
Panamax company and personal money, the Clipboard, flags and free actions, Passenger benefits, buying shares, dividends and Financial Advisors
Keep two accounts
- Company money lives on the Clipboard. It builds ships, pays cargo fees and pays dividends. Income from delivered cargo, passengers and shares players buy goes here.
- Your money lives outside the Clipboard. It buys shares, covers what the company cannot pay, and it is your score.
- Company money left at the end of the game counts for nothing. You cannot move personal money into the company to pay dividends (BGG thread).
The clipboard
- Flag rows — one row per nation: EU, USA East, China, USA West
- Military-ship pay — the $1, $2, $3 above the columns: what one Military ship of that nation pays you
- Free action spaces — covering one with a flag triggers its action
- First-column bonus — four different flags in the first column make die transfers free
- Passenger benefits — three spaces for Passenger tokens
- Company assets — company money and the ships not yet built
Flags and free actions
- Place each flag in its nation’s row, from left to right. Three flags fill a row; more flags of that nation are stacked on the third and only matter for Financial Advisor cards (BGG thread).
- Covering a free-action space triggers it at once. You may decline it, but if you use it you must do all of it. It is not part of your turn: it can also happen at round end, from a Rail-table flag.
| Free action | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
 Market | EU 2nd, USA East 1st, China 2nd, USA West 1st | Buy one share of any company, including your own |
 Load one die | USA East 2nd | Load one die from an incomplete contract (normal loading rules), or a die from your Warehouse or Dice Pool set to 2 onto any ship in any Loading zone — even one already loaded this turn |
 Move 3 | EU 3rd, China 3rd | Exactly 3 moves, any mix of lock and waterway |
 Rail | USA West 2nd | Put a die set to 2 from your Warehouse or Dice Pool on the 1st wagon, or raise one of your dice there by 2 (to 6 at most) |
- Deferred Market action. If you do not use a Market action at once, flip the flag to its
Market side. When your next flag of the same nation is placed by a later action — a later turn, a Rail-table flag, or even a Stevedore card the same turn — you must use the deferred buy first — then the new space’s action — or lose it, and the flag turns back. (BGG thread) - Several flags from one nation resolve left to right; flags from different nations in any order you like.
- First-column bonus. Once all four flags in the first column are in place, moving a die across the Action table is free for the rest of the game.
- The Load free action cannot put a die on the Rail table, not even a rail container (BGG thread).
Passenger benefits
Each 
Passenger token goes on one of the three spaces, your choice; its benefit lasts for the rest of the game. Extra tokens are stacked on any of them.
| Space | Benefit |
|---|---|
 | Move a die across the Action table for $2 instead of $5 |
 | When you take a contract, you may take the Inbound Cargo card or the top Draw-pile card instead of the one beside your column |
 | With a Contract / Load Cargo action, load one extra die from a contract — still one die per ship (BGG thread) |
Market actions
- Buy a share with an Executive die or a Market free action. Pay its company’s current price (left column of the Market table) from your money to that company, take the share from those shown above its Clipboard, then move its cube up $1.
- Any company with shares left, your own included. Each company has 5 shares; one starts with its player.
- Raise your stock: with an Executive die instead of buying, move your own company’s cube up $2.
| Price | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dividend per share | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Shares and dividends
- At the end of each round every company pays the dividend next to its cube for each of its shares that players hold — yours included.
- If it cannot pay all of them, it pays none, its stock drops $2, and its player cannot win that round’s Managing Director Award.
- At the end of the game every share you hold is sold at its company’s price.
Financial Advisors
- You start with one secret Financial Advisor card; more come from 3-slot ships leaving the canal.
- Hold as many as you like, but at the end only your best two score.
- What each of the nine cards pays is in Cards & Components.