Governor
Visiting the governor is worthwhile every time. Notice, that the governor is mostly very occupied, you can only visit him once per city visit.
The governor provides information about relations to other nations such as war, peace and ally status and he will promote you if you plead for your nation. Sometimes you may also get a notice from other governors from different nations telling you of your relation to them.
City Management: If you are lucky enough to capture a city you can check your town status by click on the upper right tab in the governor's office. This allows to check your wealth and your citizens status. It will also allow you to send money to the town and hire soldiers for defense.
City Information
In the information center of the city you will receive important details about the city status. You can see several events at the news board like fights near the city or lack of goods.
In the area "Industry" there is a detailed overview about production and consumption of the different goods available. If a city runs out of stock it cannot grow more.
Additionally you can accept several tasks from the "Jobs" board to earn money or sympathy points for the respective nation etc.
Merchant
At the merchant you can buy and sell goods. The prices of the goods of the merchant depend on the stocks. The more stocks there is the less they will pay. Keep in mind that you always buy enough food for your crew otherwise they will mutiny and cause you to lose a ship if not more.
Pub
In the pub you have the possibility to hire crew. Ship boys are always present but better seamen like experienced sailors or fight experienced veterans have to be lured into the pub by spending rum. Additionally you can increase the moral of your crew by spending rum for them.
Specialists: From time to time there are specialists present in the pub who have special abilities. A navigator increases the speed of your fleet or allows to lead more ships at the same time, a look-out man increases the visibility range of your fleet for a faster identification of enemy ships.
You have to pay a continuous gold for the specialists. But if a specialist stays with you a certain time, he/she will become loyal and won't leave you when rafted, however they will leave if you cant pay them. Usually specialists will leave if the fleet is not big enough.
A detailed list of specialists is available in the appendix.
Sometimes you will meet other people who offer you information. This will not happen often but you will receive a message if someone wants to offer you something.
Bounties: Bounties can be set on other human players for a minimum of 20.000 gold, these can be set to sink a ship above a minimum class. If a bounty was set on a player you will see a little coin behind his name when you meet the player on sea. Also bounties will be added automatically when a nations city is captured by another nation. For reclaiming the city you will receive 30.000 gold.
Bank
If you don't want to lose your hard earned gold to the sea or pirates you should deposit it in the bank. There your gold is safe. But above a certain amount of gold you have to pay taxes. Also, note that not all cities have banks. You're money will be available in any city that has a bank.
Ship Yard
In the ship yard you can order new ships to be built, sell or buy used ships and upgrade or repair your fleet. Please notice, that not every yard can take every ship. Smaller yards usually have no space for larger ships. The yard will also work on your orders if you are offline because the time in the world doesn't stop. A detailed list of all ship types can be found in the appendix. Additionally you can buy and sell cannons and ammunition in the yard.