This survey will take about 1 minute.
Your answers will help us to improve our website.
Civilization VII
Civ 7 How to Send and Make Trade Routes with Merchants
★ Start Here: How to Play | Early Game
★ See the Best Leaders and Civs
★ Tech, Civics, Buildings, Units, & Wonders
★ Economic, Military, Science, Culture Victories
★Recommended Guides: Treasure Fleets
┗ Map Types | Trade Routes | Migrants
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!
List of Contents
How to Send and Make Trade Routes
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.
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.
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.
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.
Civilization VII (Civ 7) Related Guides
All Recommended Guides
All Tips and Tricks
Comment
Author
Civ 7 How to Send and Make Trade Routes with Merchants
Please participate in our site
improvement survey
12/2025
improvement survey
12/2025
Would you assist in
improving Game8's site?
improving Game8's site?
×
We are listening to our users' valuable opinions and discussing how to act on them.
The information collected through this survey will be used for the purpose of improving our services. In addition, the information will only be disclosed a part of a statistic in a format that will not allow identification of personal information.
Begin Survey
Not Now
×
Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Advertisements.
Amount of Ads
Very Dissatisfied
Somewhat Dissatisfied
Fine
Somewhat Satisfied
Highly Satisfied
Placement of Ads
Timing of Ad Display
Ad Loading Speed
Safeness of Ads
Content of Ads
×
Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Quality of Articles.
Amount of information
Very Dissatisfied
Somewhat Dissatisfied
Fine
Somewhat Satisfied
Highly Satisfied
Frequency of updates
Speed of new information
Accuracy of articles
Understandibility of articles
Readability of sentences
×
Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Usability of the Site.
Ease of finding information
Very Dissatisfied
Somewhat Dissatisfied
Fine
Somewhat Satisfied
Highly Satisfied
Loading Speed
Use of Color
Font Size
Visibility of Images
Easy to Understand Layout
×
Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Message Boards, Comments.
Ease of Writing
Very Dissatisfied
Somewhat Dissatisfied
Fine
Somewhat Satisfied
Highly Satisfied
Readability
Ease in Finding Information
Comment Quality
Comment Quantity
Admin Response
×
Please rate each item regarding Game8.co's Site's new design.
Please rate our site's new design
Very Dissatisfied
Somewhat Dissatisfied
Fine
Somewhat Satisfied
Highly Satisfied
Do you think that the website's design change makes the site easier to use?
Has the new design made it easier for you to find information on the site?
Has the new design improved the overall visual appeal of the site?
How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the new design of the site?
×
How likely are you to recommend Game8 to someone you know?
Very Unlikely
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Very Likely
If you have other opinions regarding potential improvement to the website, please share them with us. We would appreciate your honest opinion.
Note: This is a free response section, so you can proceed without entering anything.
Note: Please be sure not to enter any kind of personal information into your response.
Note: Please be sure not to enter any kind of personal information into your response.
×
Thank You
×
Thank you for participating in our survey! Your answers will help us to improve the quality of our website and services.
We hope you continue to make use of Game8.
We hope you continue to make use of Game8.
Close
Rankings
- We could not find the message board you were looking for.
Gaming News
![Octopath Traveler 0 Review [In Progress] | Familiar, But Better](https://img.game8.co/4357336/fcaf07d58cc243e6b7319ca9b118ba16.png/thumb)
Popular Games
Genshin Impact Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Umamusume: Pretty Derby Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Where Winds Meet Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Honkai: Star Rail Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Digimon Story: Time Stranger Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Wuthering Waves Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Chaos Zero Nightmare Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Pokemon TCG Pocket (PTCGP) Strategies & Guides Wiki
Pokemon Legends: Z-A Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Elden Ring Nightreign Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Recommended Games
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Fire Emblem Heroes (FEH) Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Monster Hunter World Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (BDSP) Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Persona 3 Reload Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
All rights reserved
©2024 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Sid Meier’s Civilization, Civilization, Civ, 2K, Firaxis Games, Take-Two Interactive Software and their respective logos are all trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All other marks and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
The copyrights of videos of games used in our content and other intellectual property rights belong to the provider of the game.
The contents we provide on this site were created personally by members of the Game8 editorial department.
We refuse the right to reuse or repost content taken without our permission such as data or images to other sites.