When companies fail

I've started to work on the stock market for Britain Under Steam. One question I hadn't thought of before is what special zones, if any, to add for low stock prices.

The classic example from 1829, 1830 and many descendants is the yellow zone. Shares of companies valued in this zone do not count against certificate limits. This encourages players to buy these cheap shares. It can also encourage a player to keep one company withholding income, so that it stays in this zone while transferring its wealth to the player's other companies.

1830 added a brown zone and an orange zone. When a company is valued in the orange zone, a player may own more than the usual 60% of the company. When valued in the brown zone, a player may buy any number of shares in that company in one turn. This allows for quick "refloatation" of a company. (I had to look these up, which suggests to me that 1830 has too many zones to remember easily).

Many 18xx games have a value below which companies go bankrupt and are removed from the game. 1860 is unusual in that bankrupt companies continue to exist and can be restarted, at slightly lower par prices than before. This allows companies to be recycled into the game.

1817 has a zone in which companies can be acquired by other companies.

In Britain Under Steam, I'm looking to have share prices £10 apart. This is different from many other 18xx games, which have smaller steps at the bottom of the market. It means that the bottom of the stock market could be reached quite quickly. (I could conceivably add extra rows at the same price to compensate). So I think I do want some penalty for reaching the bottom. However, I don't want companies to disappear from the game - the whole point of the game is to have companies moving up and down in price throughout.

My initial thought is to have companies automatically go into receivership at some point. I.e. players will lose their shares for no recompense. The receiver will run the company, eventually bringing it into shape for repurchase.

It will be interesting to see whether an 1860-like restart will be needed and/or useful. In 1860, the restart gives the company new capital (although it is not run in receivership in the interim). This may work better than the receivership option, but might it also encourage people to run companies into the ground?

I'm not sure whether to also have a yellow zone. I don't want to over-egg the benefits of continually withholding income in one company, but encouraging players to buy into cheap shares might be worthwhile. I definitely don't want a brown zone, as I want to encourage cross-investment.

There are lots of options to try. I think I'll start with a small yellow zone and automatic receivership at the bottom of the chart.