How to Play Commerce
Commerce is a French card game which was very popular in the 19th century. Newer games such as Thirty-One and Stop the Bus appear to be originally derived from the game Commerce and it's variants. It is thought the game was originally created by the Brocielski family of Poland but spread quickly to other areas such as France, becoming highly popular there.

Commerce is designed to be played by 3 to 10 players using one standard 52 card deck. The ranking of the cards in the deck are as follows (from high to low); Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

Initial setup for Commerce Before the game begins, each player should be provided three tokens which he places on the table in front of himself. Determination of the first dealer and seating positions can be performed in a variety of methods, with drawing for high cards a common method. The player would each draw a card from the face-down shuffled deck and take seats at the table in the order of ranking of cards drawn. The player drawing the highest card of all would be set as the first dealer, and thereafter the deal passes in a clockwise rotation around the table. If two or more players draw cards of the same denomination, those players should draw again, continuing to draw until they draw a card which is of a unique denomination to all other cards drawn.

Once the first dealer has been determined he should thoroughly shuffle the pack and offer it to the player at his right to cut. After the cut, the dealer then begins dealing the cards, one at a time in a clockwise rotation, starting with the player to his immediate left. He continues in this way until each player has three face-down cards. He then deals the next three cards from the top of the remainder of the deck and places them face-up on the table as the widow.

Before the dealer looks at his own hand, he may elect to trade some of the cards from his hand with those in the widow without looking at his own hand. The dealer is not obligated to trade any cards from his hand in this way, but has the option to. In this game, if a player trades all three cards from his hand with those in the center on the same turn, he may no longer make trades for the rest of that hand, passing on each subsequent turn until the end of the hand. Similarly, if the dealer opts to do this at this time, he must pass for the remainder of the hand.

Once the dealer has accepted or declined to trade any cards from his hand, sight unseen, all players may then pick up their hands and the player to the immediate left of the dealer has the first turn, with the turn rotating in a clockwise rotation around the table.

On his turn a player may elect to trade one, two or three cards from his hand with the same number of cards from the three face-up widow cards on the table. A player is not obligated to make a trade and may also pass, however once a player passes he must pass on every remaining turn during the current hand. As indicated, however, if a player elects to trade all three cards on the same turn, he may no longer trade any cards for the remainder of the hand, passing on each subsequent turn. When trading cards on his turn, player puts his own card or cards face-up in place of the cards he elects to take from the center of the table, adding the traded cards into his hand. The players trade the cards in an attempt to get the highest combination of three cards (see the chart below).

Each complete rotation around the table (in which each player gets one turn) is called a round, and there are a number of rounds of trading equal to the number of active players in the hand. After each round is completed, a new card is dealt face up by the dealer from the unused deck onto the table, adding to the widow cards currently found on the table.

The hand ends after a number of hands equal to the number of players in the game. Alternatively, once two players have knocked the hand ends. At this point, the hands are shown and compared to determine which player has the highest hand and wins the hand. The following chart shows the ranking of the various combinations of cards that might be in a player's hand (from highest to lowest):
RankingNameDescriptionExample
1TriconThree cards of the exact same rank. Amongst Tricons, a Tricon of higher ranked cards is considered higher than a Tricon of three lower ranked cards.Tricon
2SequenceThree cards of the same suit in direct sequential order. The lowest card allowed in a sequence is a 2 and the highest in any Sequence is an Ace. For comparing two Sequences, the sequence containing the highest ranked card is considered the highest.Commerce Sequence
3FlushThree cards of the same suit, but not in sequential order. For comparing two flushes, the one containing the highest ranked card in the sequence is considered the highest.Commerce Flush
4PairTwo cards of the same exact denomination. The third card in the hand can be any other card. For comparing pairs, the pair of highest ranked card is considered the highest. If the paired cards are of the same rank, the denomination of the odd card is then compared.Commerce Pair
5PointA hand which does not fit into any of the previous categories. For comparison of two or more Point hands, the total value of all cards in the hand are totaled, and the player with the highest point total is set as the winner. For this purpose, Aces count 11, Face cards 10 each, and all other cards count as the value marked on the card.Commerce Hand Point
The hands are then compared, and the player who has the overall highest ranked hand during the current hand collects one token from the player with the lowest ranked hand in this hand. If a player runs out of tokens in this way, he must drop from the game. The game can continue until one player has all the tokens, or alternatively can be played for a set number of rounds (say 15) with the player having the most total tokens at that time declared the winner.
Variations and Optional Rules

Pounce Commerce Pounce Commerce: Pounce Commerce was once the most popular version of Commerce played. It is very similar to the standard game with one key difference.

If a player currently has a Tricon in hand and the fourth card of that same denomination appears on the table (whether discard in an exchange by another player or added from the stock pile after a round), the player having the Tricon of the same denomination players may shout Pounce and immediately take the card into his hand. He may do this even if not currently his turn, simply taking the card and adding it to his current hand. This gives him a four card hand, which is considered higher than any three card hand. The only hand considered higher would be another four card hand of a higher denomination that another player might obtain by also Pouncing. Immediately after the player calls Pounce and takes the card, another card is added from the stock pile to the center of the pile, and the game resumes as before the player called Pounce.

No Pair or Point: In some of the earliest versions of the game, the Pair and Point categories are not used. As such, only the categories Tricon, Sequence and Flush are recognized in the game. If a player does not have a hand which fulfills that category, they can never win the hand.

Trade and Barter: Trade and Barter is a variation of Commerce which hails from England. This variant has several differences from the standard game, as follows:
                     
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