The Merchant is a civilian unit in Civilization VII.
- Attributes:
- Creates roads while traveling along a Trade Route.
- Creates roads between domestic
Settlements using the Build Road option.
- Abilities:
- Establishes a Trade Route to a foreign Settlement or City-State within range.
- Establishes a Trade Route to a foreign
Strategy[]
To use a Merchant in the Antiquity Age one must have researched Code of Laws and there must be a foreign Civilization's 
Settlement, or a 
City-State within range.
In the Exploration Age, one must have researched Economics. In the Modern Age you must have researched Steam Engine.
Creating a Trade Route across open ocean requires researching Cartography and having a Fishing Quay or similar Building located in a Settlement on both land masses. Caution is needed prior to researching Shipbuilding, as it prevents damage caused from crossing open ocean tiles.
To establish a Trade Route you need to move your Merchant into an eligible foreign Settlement, or a City-State and use the 
Make Trade Route action, or by selecting a Trade Route using the Trade Lens.
| Age | Land Trade Routes | Sea Trade Routes |
|---|---|---|
| Antiquity | 10 | 30 |
| Exploration | 15 | 45 |
| Modern | 20 | 60 |
Civilopedia entry[]
In the site of Óc Eo, a port city of the kingdom of Funan on the Mekong Delta of present-day Vietnam, archaeologists unearthed a cache of Roman artifacts. These arrived not from Roman triremes on a mission of conquest, but via long networks of trade spanning the known world, linking the forests of Britannia with the markets of India, African mines with cities in China. What was to become the Silk Road became the lifeblood of the Old World, bringing togas made of Chinese silk to Rome and Roman-made glass to Silla (Korea). Those who bore those goods were merchants, facing the uncertainty of travel for the potential profits to be made.
But even as empires depended on trade, merchants remained objects of occasional frustration. Confucius considered merchants and their quest for profits a drain on society, and avarice was labeled a sin in medieval Europe. Yet as kings and soldiers rose and fell, merchants remained.
See also[]
- Merchant in other games
| Civilization VII Units [edit] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Antiquity | Civilian | |
| Commander | ||
| Land military | ||
| Naval military | ||
| Exploration | Civilian | |
| Commander | ||
| Land military | ||
| Naval military | ||
| Modern | Civilian | |
| Commander | ||
| Land military | ||
| Naval military | ||
| Air military | ||
| 1 Requires DLC | ||