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Industrial economics
Arkwright: The Card Game
Industrial Revolution entrepreneur: compete on price and quality and push your shares up
1–4Players
60–100 minDuration
~20 minSetup
HighComplexity
CompetitiveDynamic
A card-based economic game set in the English Industrial Revolution of the 18th century. Each player is an industrialist who grows factories and competes for market share in several sectors through price and quality decisions.
The name refers to Sir Richard Arkwright, regarded as the father of the modern factory system. The game recreates the shift from craft production to the mechanised factory, combining hiring workers, mechanisation and a stock market in which each company’s value appreciates according to its performance.
Classroom value
- The price/quality trade-off makes tangible a core concept of market competition and product differentiation.
- Mechanisation and productivity illustrate both a historical fact (the Industrial Revolution) and an economic concept (capital–labour substitution).
- Having the share price depend on factory performance connects operations and company valuation.
- A good seminar exercise: deconstruct what the model captures faithfully and what it simplifies (regulation, real working conditions).
In the classroom
No. of players1–4
TeamsNo
People per gamemax. 4
Game MasterNo
Sessions1 session
SpaceOne table
MaterialPhysical game
🏭Hook: the Industrial RevolutionFactory system and mechanisation (R. Arkwright)
Technical details
DesignStefan Risthaus
PublisherSpielworxx · Capstone Games
LanguagesEnglish · Spanish