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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. Activation is accomplished usually in a Commercial Hub district.
In Monopolies and Corporations game mode it has 1 Build charge and can build Corporation improvements (which expends the Great Merchant). So in this mode, a Great Merchant can be either used for its normal activated ability OR to build a Corporation improvement, but not both (Note: for Great Merchants that have multiple activated charges (e.g. Marcus Licinius Crassus) that limitation still applies, using any of their normal activated charges means that Merchant will be 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 Secret Societies 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 University replacement of the Hermetic Order, also provides +1
Great Merchant point. In Monopolies and Corporations 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. The Great Zimbabwe provides +2
Great Merchant points per turn, and the Casa de Contratación and Big Ben wonders 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 completes the Capitalism civic, the Traveling Merchants card is replaced with the Laissez-Faire policy card, 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 ![]() ![]() |
Marcus Licinius Crassus | Classical | Gain 60 ![]() |
Zhang Qian | Classical | Increases ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ibn Fadlan[1] | Medieval | Increases ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Irene of Athens | Medieval | Increase ![]() ![]()
|
Marco Polo | Medieval | Grants a free Trader unit in this city, and increases ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Piero de' Bardi | Medieval | Gain 200 ![]() ![]() |
Zhou Daguan[1] | Renaissance | Grants 3 ![]() |
Giovanni de' Medici | Renaissance | Instantly builds a Market and a Bank in a Commercial Hub district. The Bank gains 2 Great Work slots which can be filled by anything. |
Jakob Fugger | Renaissance | Gain 200 ![]() ![]() |
Raja Todar Mal | Renaissance | Gain an ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Adam Smith | Industrial | Adds +1 ![]()
|
John Jacob Astor | Industrial | Gain 500 ![]() ![]() |
John Spilsbury | Industrial | Creates one copy of ![]() ![]() |
Stamford Raffles[1] | Modern | Absorbs this City-state into your empire. Grants you +10 Loyalty per turn in the city. |
John Rockefeller | Modern | Grants 1 ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Sarah Breedlove | Modern | +25% ![]() ![]() |
Mary Katherine Goddard | Modern | Gain +1 Diplomatic visibility with other civs. |
Helena Rubinstein | Atomic | Creates two copies of ![]() ![]() |
Levi Strauss | Atomic | Creates two copies of ![]() ![]() |
Melitta Bentz | Atomic | Increases ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Estée Lauder | Information | Creates two copies of ![]() ![]() |
Jamsetji Tata | Information | Campus districts provide +10 ![]() |
Masaru Ibuka | Information | Industrial Zone districts provide +10 ![]() |
- ↑ 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
District into tourist attractions, thus helping you to achieve a Cultural Victory.
In Monopolies and Corporations mode, it is crucial to attract Great Merchants since they are the only way to establish Corporations. At the same time, be careful who is used to establish a Corporation, since the Great Merchant will disappear once they establish a Corporation.
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.
Civilization VI Great People [edit] |
---|
Artist • Admiral • Engineer • General • Comandante General1 • Merchant • Musician • Prophet • Scientist • Writer |
Great Works |
Great Merchants |
Adam Smith • Colaeus • Estée Lauder • Giovanni de' Medici • Helena Rubinstein • Ibn Fadlan1 • Irene of Athens • Jakob Fugger • Jamsetji Tata • John Jacob Astor • John Rockefeller • John Spilsbury • Levi Strauss • Marco Polo • Marcus Licinius Crassus • Mary Katherine Goddard • Masaru Ibuka • Melitta Bentz • Piero de' Bardi • Raja Todar Mal • Sarah Breedlove • Stamford Raffles1 • Zhang Qian • Zhou Daguan1 |
1 Requires a DLC
|