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The Great Merchant is a type of 
Great Person in Civilization VI dedicated to wealth, luxuries, and trade. Each Great Merchant has a unique ability which may be activated at least once, granting its owner a potentially game-changing bonus. Most, but not all, of them must be activated in a Commercial Hub district.
In the Monopolies and Corporations game mode, each Great Merchant has 1 
build charge and can build a Corporation (which consumes the Great Merchant). This allows a Great Merchant to either use its activated ability or build a Corporation, but not both. This limitation still applies to Great Merchants that have multiple activated charges (e.g., Marcus Licinius Crassus), and using any of their normal activated charges makes them ineligible to establish a Corporation.
Earning Great Merchants[]
Great Merchants may be claimed by any player who has earned enough 
Great Merchant points. Commercial Hubs and Sugubas generate +1 Great Merchant point per turn, +2 more if the city has built the Oracle, and provide an additional point for each building completed in that district. (For example, a Commercial Hub with a Market, Bank, and Stock Exchange would generate +4 Great Merchant points per turn.) In the Secret Societies game mode, the Gilded Vault, the Owls of Minerva's unique replacement for the Bank, adds +2 Great Merchant points instead of 1, and the Alchemical Society, the Hermetic Order's unique replacement for the University, also provides +1 Great Merchant point. In the Monopolies and Corporations game mode, the Industry improvement generates +1 Great Merchant point as well. Further points may also be earned by completing the Commercial Hub Investment project in a city with a Commercial Hub. Players who do not have enough points may patronize a Merchant by paying the difference using 
Faith or 
Gold.
Several wonders also provide Great Merchant points. Great Zimbabwe provides +2 Great Merchant points per turn, and the Casa de Contratación and Big Ben each provide +3 Great Merchant points per turn.
Players can also increase their Great Merchant point yields by using the Traveling Merchants policy card, which generates +2 Great Merchant points per turn. Once the player discovers the Capitalism civic, Traveling Merchants is replaced with Laissez-Faire, which generates +4 Great Merchant points per turn. In Gathering Storm, this card instead provides +2 Great Merchant points for every Bank owned and +4 for every Stock Exchange owned. It also provides bonus 
Great Admiral points.
The Stockholm Suzerain bonus (or Bologna in Gathering Storm) increases the number of Great Merchant points generated from each Commercial Hub district by +1. (Note that in Rise and Fall, this bonus is only active if the Commercial Hub has a completed Market building.)
All Great Merchant point yields are doubled if Pingala with the Grants title is present. Additionally, the Kongolese generate 50% more Great Merchant points from all sources.
Great Merchants[]
| Name | Era | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Colaeus | Classical | Gain 100 Faith (on Standard speed). Grants 1 free copy of the Luxury resource on this tile to your  Capital city.
|
| Marcus Licinius Crassus | Classical | Gain 60 Gold (on Standard speed). Annexes any contiguous tile into the nearest of your city's territories. Activates on tiles next to your territory. (3 charges)
|
| Zhang Qian | Classical | Increases  Trade Route capacity by 1. Foreign Trade Routes to this city provide +2 Gold to both cities.
|
| Ibn Fadlan[1] | Medieval | Increases Trade Route capacity by 1. Your Trade Routes to City-states now grant you +2 Faith.
|
| Irene of Athens | Medieval | Increase Trade Route capacity by 1. Grants 1 free copy of the Luxury resource on this tile to your Capital city.
|
| Marco Polo | Medieval | Grants a free Trader unit in this city, and increases Trade Route capacity by 1. Foreign Trade Routes to this city provides +2 Gold to both cities.
|
| Piero de' Bardi | Medieval | Gain 200 Gold and 1  Envoy.
|
| Zhou Daguan[1] | Renaissance | Grants 3 Envoys at this City-state.
|
| Giovanni de' Medici | Renaissance | Instantly builds a Market and a Bank in a Commercial Hub district. This Bank gains 2 Great Work slots which can be filled by anything. |
| Jakob Fugger | Renaissance | Gain 200 Gold and 2 Envoys.
|
| Raja Todar Mal | Renaissance | Gain an Envoy. Domestic Trade Routes gain +0.5 Gold per district at the destination (rounds down to integer).
|
| Adam Smith | Industrial | Adds +1  Economic Policy slot to your government.
|
| John Jacob Astor | Industrial | Gain 500 Gold. Gain 2 Envoys.
|
| John Spilsbury | Industrial | Creates one copy of  Toys, which provides +4  Amenities.
|
| Stamford Raffles[1] | Modern | Absorbs this City-state into your empire. Grants you +10 Loyalty per turn in the city. Activates in a city-state of which you are Suzerain. |
| John Rockefeller | Modern | Grants 1  Oil. Your Trade Routes gain +2 Gold for each Strategic resource improved by the destination city.
|
| Sarah Breedlove | Modern | +25%  Tourism rate towards other civilizations you have a Trade Route to.
|
| Mary Katherine Goddard | Modern | Gain +1 Diplomatic visibility with other civs. |
| Helena Rubinstein | Atomic | Creates two copies of  Cosmetics, which provide +4 Amenities each.
|
| Levi Strauss | Atomic | Creates two copies of  Jeans, which provide +4 Amenities each.
|
| Melitta Bentz | Atomic | Increases Trade Route capacity by 1. +25% Tourism to other civilizations you have a Trade Route to.
|
| Estée Lauder | Information | Creates two copies of  Perfume, which provide +6 Amenities each.
|
| Jamsetji Tata | Information | Campus districts provide +10 Tourism. Activates in your Campus.
|
| Masaru Ibuka | Information | Industrial Zone districts provide +10 Tourism. Activates in your Industrial Zone.
|
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Available with the Babylon Pack DLC.
Added in the Rise and Fall expansion pack.
Added in the Gathering Storm expansion pack.Scenario-specific Great Merchants[]
Jadwiga's Legacy[]
Strategy[]
The Great Merchants' abilities help commerce, as usual. However, they do it in vastly different ways. Some grant instant Gold sums; others grant increased Trade Route capacity; others grant free Luxury Resources. Some Merchants also help to influence city-states. Endgame Merchants are even able to turn 
Districts into tourist attractions, thus helping you to achieve a Cultural Victory.
In the Monopolies and Corporations game mode, it is crucial to attract Great Merchants since they are the only way to establish Corporations. At the same time, be careful which Merchants you use to establish Corporations, since they will disappear after doing so.
Civilopedia entry[]
Of the four things that determine the course of civilization, greed is probably the most pervasive. Once folk settled and started farming and mining, there was always someone who found that others wanted what they had in plenty, and were willing to pay for it. And so merchants fanned out across the globe, trading in everything from grain to gold, hemp to human beings. The most adventurous among these were always seeking new markets, and hence were explorers who brought back knowledge of distant peoples and customs. Some of the greatest discoveries were the product of the greed of these adventurers. Their travels also enriched their nations in more material ways, for the taxes and profits from their trips funded great works of engineering, education, colonization, art, and war. Without the great merchants, civilization would have been much poorer.
See also[]
- Great Merchant in other games