Trade Routes are made by sending Merchants to a nearby foreign settlement in Civilization VII (Civ 7). Learn how to set up and establish trade routes with Merchants and what to do if Trade Routes are not working in this guide!

How to Send and Make Trade Routes

1. Train or Purchase Merchants
2. See All Potential Trading Routes
3. Send the Merchant to the Settlement

Train or Purchase Merchants

Before you can establish a trade route, you first need to unlock and have a Merchant. Depending on the Age, Merchants are unlocked through the Technologies or Civics Tree.

	Age	Tree
Code of Laws	Antiquity	Civics
Economics	Exploration	Civics
Steam Engine	Modern	Technologies

Merchants or their variants in certain Civs are the only units that can establish trade routes, so make sure you have them first! Training or purchasing a Merchant unit on one of your settlements is the next step.

List of All Units

See All Potential Trading Routes

Selecting a Merchant shows all the potential trade routes. This will display available routes on the map, from the nearest to the farthest. Find one with the most resources or with the resource that you need the most.

Send the Merchant to the Settlement

After selecting a trade route, send the Merchant to the chosen settlement by moving them to one of the settlement's owned tiles and wait for them to arrive.

The number of turns required depends on the distance, hence it’s important to choose the nearest trade route to establish one quickly. Otherwise, if you want to choose a distant settlement, buy a new Merchant in the closest settlement you own to avoid wasting turns traveling.

Unlike in previous titles, Trade Routes aren't automatically set after moving a Merchant to a foreign settlement. You'll need to wait for them to arrive and use their Make Trade Route ability before the Trade Route is established.

Declaring War Removes Trade Routes

If you are at war with another leader, you cannot establish Trade Routes in their territory and your active Trade Routes will be cancelled, sending your Merchant back to your settlement. This also applies to hostile Independent Powers.

However, Leaders whom you have Neutral or Unfriendly relationship with can still accept trade routes until the Denounce Sanction is placed or the relationship drops to Hostile.

What to Do If Trade Routes are Not Working?

• Move Your Merchants Manually
• Increase Trade Route Range
• Increase Trade Route Capacity
• Maintain Good Relationship with Other Leaders

Move Your Merchants Manually

One flaw of Civ 7's UI is the Merchant not automatically creating Trade Routes when selecting from the Trade Route list. Currently, you'll have to use the move the Merchant to the target settlement yourself and wait for them to reach any of that settlement's tile before using their Make Trade Route ability.

Increase Trade Route Range

Merchants might also struggle to travel to distant regions. Even if they make it, the game will reject the trade route due to the lack of nearby settlements.

If you want to trade with distant civilizations, make sure to establish a nearby settlement first to increase the Trade Route range or develop your closest town enough for it to gain access to the Trade Outpost Specialization.

How to Increase Trade Range

Increase Trade Route Capacity

Already having an active Trade Route with a civilization is also a possible reason why you can't create a Trade Route. If you want to send another Merchant to the same civilization, you'll have to use the Improve Trade Relations Diplomatic Action under the Treaties section to increase the Trade Route capacity with them.

Maintain Good Relationship with Other Leaders

Trade Routes can't be made with Hostile Leaders or those you're at war with, as well. Your relationship with them should be at least Unfriendly before they can accept a Merchant from you, but a positive relationship will make maintaining the route easier.

Establishing a good relationship with other leaders also encourage them to propose trade routes with you. This is especially helpful if you want to establish trade routes while prioritizing legacy paths other than economic.

In addition, maintaining a good relationship with other leaders will boost the chances of them accepting trade diplomacy, opening up more potential trade routes with any cities they own.

Leaders List and All Abilities

What Do You Get from Trade Routes?

Grants More Resources and Gold from Foreign Settlements

Trade Route is an economic feature that allows you to travel to other settlements to get a copy of the Resources they own. It's one of the goals in the Economic Legacy Path, where resources play a crucial role in all Ages of the game. If other leaders initiate the trade, you'll receive Gold instead.

Legacy Paths Explained

Allocate New Resources to Settlements

After establishing a Trade Route, you'll see all foreign resources, including their bonuses and origins, in the resource screen. Anything listed under Bonus can be assigned to your cities or towns.

List of All Resources

Civilization VII (Civ 7) Related Guides

Beginner Tips and Tricks

All Recommended Guides

Recommended Guides
How to Play Civ 7	Early Game Strategy Guide
The New Ages	Diplomacy Guide
Best Science Mementos	Best Military Mementos
Best Culture Mementos	Ground Combat Guide
Naval Exploration and Combat Guide	What Does Happiness Do
How to Win Wars	-
Leader and Civ Guides
Best Leaders and Civilizations Tier Lists	Best Science Leaders
Best Military Leaders	Best Culture Leaders
Best Economic Leaders and Civs	Best Science Civs
Best Culture Civs	Best Culture Civs
List Pages
List of Mementos	List of All Governments
List of Policies	List of Pantheons
All Unique Units	-

All Tips and Tricks

Gameplay Mechanics
Adjacency Bonuses	Army Commanders
Ageless Buildings	Building Roads
Celebrations	Codex (Codices)
Crisis	Dark Age Legacies
Districts	Factory Resources
Healing Units	Independent People
Legacy Paths	Migrants
Overbuilding	Persistent Buildings
Quarters	Repairing Buildings
Rural and Urban Districts	Settlement Cap
Specialists	Towns
Trade Range	Trade Routes and Merchants
Treasure Fleets	Treasure Resources
Upgrading Units	Warehouse Buildings and Bonuses
How to Navigate Rivers	How to Get More Railroad Tycoon Points
Other Tips and Tricks
Where to Settle	Where to Spend Gold
When to Build More Settlements	What to Do Before and After Age Change
Best Settings	Map Types Explained
Best Build Order	Morse Code Event
Should I Accept Alliance?	How to Change City Name
Should You Convert a Town Into a City?	Can You Capture Settlers?
Where to Spend Influence?	When to Incorporate City-States?
Can Scouts Auto Explore?	Best Pantheon
Should You Rush Age Change?	How to Incite Raid
How to Get Relics	How to Get Artifacts
Fresh Water Tiles	Why Can't You Build a Factory?
Distant Lands	Revolutions
How to Get More Resource Slots	Attribute Trees Guide
How to Get Tile Max Yield	How to Found Religion and List of Beliefs
What is X Per Age?	How to Defend and Conquer Cities
What is War Weariness and War Support?	Zone of Control
How to Change the Capital	Resource Map
Should You Melt or Construct Relic?	Game Speed
Floods	Natural Disasters
Best Map Seeds	How to Force End Turn
Papyrus Problems	Best Tech Research Order