does any one know where i may find instructions or a walkthrough for patrican 1?
i have searched and find nothing for patrican 1 - plenty for the sequels but not for the original

If you look in Wikipedia it says:
Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse is the latest computer game from Ascaron in their Patrician series. It is a game simulating trading, piracy, politics, and economy. The series was originally released in German, as Patrizier and Patrizier 2. Patrizier 2 had an add on release called Patrizier 2: Aufschwung der Hanse. Patrician 3 is the international release in English of the combined Patrizier 2 and its expansion.
Then there is no Patrician I or II, there are only the german Patrizier and Patrizier II.

Well, either you misunderstood or Wikipedia's got it wrong. Because The Patrician 1 and 2 are on GOG. And not only that, I have boxed, English-language copies of both.
As for instructions, I'm disappointed GOG doesn't have the manual for The Patrician in the package. I thought that manuals were pretty essential.
It's a pretty thick book, and quite interesting too as it contains a lot of extra information about the Hanseatic League (remember when manuals did that?). I can't help you find it online, but I'm here so I can answer questions if you have any.

I found the manual.
http://www.lemonamiga.com/?mainurl=http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php%3Fid%3D1197

My understanding of the game titles:
The German language releases were Patrician, Patrician II, and then the Patrician II expansion. There was never a German release titled Patrician III
The English language releases were Patrician, Patrician II, and then Patrician III. Patrician III in reality is Patrician II with the expansion packaged together.
John, good find on the original manual. Interesting site

I can confirm this. The expansion is called Aufschwung der Hanse (rise of the hanse), which is also the name of Patrician 3. There was also a Gold version, which included this expansion. So you can say the german Patrizier 2 Gold is similar to the english Patrician 3.

wow, thanks guys
i was able to figure out enough to play (with questions) by spending some time with trial and error.
I admit it did not cross my mind to check lemon - now i wont forget next time
Thanks again

If people are having trouble even with the instructions, a magazine called The One published a pretty in-depth hint article on the game back when it was new. It has been scanned and put online.
I seem to remember there were some inaccuracies, but I did find it helpful when I first played the game.
http://amr.abime.net/amr_popup_picture.php?src=the_one/magscans/one61_1993_10/098.jpg&c=33914&n=1&filesize=351618
http://amr.abime.net/amr_popup_picture.php?src=the_one/magscans/one61_1993_10/099.jpg&c=33914&n=1&filesize=391188
The full coverage on The Patrician on AMR can be found here:
http://amr.abime.net/amr_search.php?search=the+patrician&mag_id=0&action=Find

If anyone does have the map they could always link it here. I know i'd appreciate it.

Everything you would want to know about Patrician can be found thru the guys on this site:
http://patrizierforum.net/index.php
It is an awesome group of players

Hmmm, amr.abime.net seems to be offline, and patrizierforum.net has a lot of stuff on Patrician II, 3 and 4 but practically none on the original.

I have found a Gernam pdf of the manual, unfortunately I don't speak German and Google translate messes it up badly. And I can't find the map anywhere.

It's basically a German-language forum, the only English "ghettos" are sections for III and IV. So basically useless when trying to understand the first game.

Any chance of someone scanning their map? Pretty please? :) So, it's been about two and a half years... have you gotten any time yet? ;)

This kinda replaces the missing map :-)

Here's a link to the map included in the German version of the game:

http://www.goodolddays.net/

To be honest, though, it doesn't seem to give all that much information. I'm not sure how much help it'll actually be.

(I tried to link directly to the image, but it doesn't seem to work for some reason. If you just do a search for Der Patrizier, though, you'll easily find the map.)