History Main / MerchantCity

* Jita has become such a massive trade hub in ''VideoGame/EVEonline'' that all missions and resources have been removed from the system and it's been moved to own server in order to handle the traffic. Of particular interest is the fact that Jita became the premier trading hub of New Eden not through developer edict, but through players following actual market forces of supply and demand.

[[folder: Fanworks! The best fanfic on the Internet!!]]

* ''Literature/GuardiansOfTheFlame'': Pandathaway, a port city which is a commercial hub and caters to visitors looking for goods. There is practically nothing that's not out for sale (this also makes it the center of the regional slave trade, much to the heroes' disgust). Merchants and guild heads run it.

** The Free City of Braavos.

* The entire Iskoort world in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' was a giant metropolis where one can purchase anything he or she wants.

* The Old City in Jerusalem, Israel, due to the amount of tourism and pilgrims stopping there for religious purposes, is more or less filled to the brim with merchant shops on roads between churches, synagogues, and mosques.

* The site of Alexandria in Egypt was recognized by [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat the founder himself]] as having great potential as a trading center when it was established in 331 BC thanks to its protective (if tricky to navigate, necessitating the construction of the Great Lighthouse to guide ships in) harbor, both nearby fertile fields to feed it and a lagoon to protect it, and location near the Nile Delta (which allowed sea trade from both upriver and the eastern Mediterranean as well as land trade from the Sinai and beyond to the east and along the Saharan routes to the west). The city also became a major center of knowledge as the trading was coupled with an intense effort to copy manuscripts that came along for the ride which was stored at the Great Library. For the next nine centuries it served as the capital of Egypt and was a truly cosmopolitan city which held a large Jewish and Hellenistic population. The Arabs conquering Egypt in 641 AD and established a new capital in Fustat (now Cairo) meant Alexandria lost its preeminence in Egyptian politics and intellectualism but remained a bustling port until Napoleon came knocking in 1798. The British took control of the city three years later and the city saw a major resurgence back to international prominence until nationalist Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized much of the Egyptian economy in the 1950s, forcing much of the city's Greek population to leave.

* Tredroy in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}''.
* The capital city of Mercadia, Mercadia City, from the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' set ''Mercadian Masques''.
* Katapesh, and to some degree Druma, in ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''.
* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' has the Free City of Marienburg in the Wasteland to the north of the Empire (the Wasteland used to be known as the Westerlands, but ever sine Marienburg bought its independence and refused to return the Imperials have taken to demeaning its importance in every way they can). There is also the far more upmarket High Elf version in Lothern and the Arabyan version in the Spice Port of Copher.
* Extropia, the first and most populous asteroid colonized by the anarcho-capitalist Extropians, in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase''.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' has Triskellion, the capital of Calebria and by far the most cosmopolitan city on the island. A century ago the king handed over most governance to a council of trade guilds.
* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' G'Pak, the only island city on Mars' silt sea is run by the Pilthuri, the merchant and diplomat class who most other city states look down on and despise. The royal and priests caste have no real power there and are essentially kept around for show, to ensure that other cities don't attempt to use the unusual arrangement against them.
* Most starports in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' have facilities for buying and selling goods, but a few worlds such as Regina in the Spinward Marches are notable for having grown rich from their position on the interstellar trade routes.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the Imperial City is literally at the centre of the world, so it's the logical place for merchants from all (D)irections to bring their goods. And before the Imperial City, there was Meru, home to nearly all the mansions and tributes given to the kings of creation. Rules-wise, everything bought in one of these places is one dot cheaper than it would otherwise be.

* The Free City of Braavos from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.
** Also Vaes Dothrak, the sacred city of the Dothraki where merchants come from across the world to trade with each other under the protection of the Horselords who themselves have no concept of money.

* Varrock city in ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' is this for players, as it's where the Grand Exchange, a big facility that lets people put their items for sale or buy from other players without direct contact, is located. Ardougne, another big city with lots of stalls in the middle is this for [=NPCs=].
** Before the Grand Exchange was added, it was Varrock for free players and Falador for members, but only on certain merchant worlds.

* The goblin-controlled cities Gadgetzan, Booty Bay, and Ratchet in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. As a ProudMerchantRace they are open to both factions and also provide access to the Neutral Auction House, the only method of cross-faction trading.

** The nation of Ul'dah in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' is practically run by merchants. While the nation does have a Sultana, she's just a [[PuppetKing figurehead]] since the true leaders are the Syndicate, which are a group of the nation's wealthiest merchants. The nation's motto is "For Coin and Country".

** There is another merchang moon you can discover, that was this in the Age of Sail. It's now in ruins.

* In ''Written by the Victors'', an ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' fanfic by Speranza, the main characters turn Atlantis into this as it's the only city that could protect an inter-planet market from the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Wraith]]

* Beiser in ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'' is a port city full of merchants, and has a Black Market that you can access by waiting for it to become night. Ironically though, it's the only town in the game where you can't buy regular supplies.

[[quoteright:330:[[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Merchant2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:330:Tropes! Get your tropes here! Tropes for sale!]]

A city populated mainly by merchants, or known for its shopping opportunities. While the term "trade city" can be tautological because any settlement large enough to support any kind of labor specialization requires trade between two different parties to function, these cities are defined by the influence of its traders, merchants, and financiers in its daily life. Tends to be a port, especially a seaport in works set historically and even into the modern day as ships have been far and away the most cost-effective means of transporting cargo in large quantities. Access to large amounts of financial capital is also usually needed in order to support the high-risk high-reward ventures often undertaken by {{IntrepidMerchant|s}}. Usually has a BlackMarket and/or a BazaarOfTheBizarre. You can buy the best available items there, or at least have the most variety to choose from.

A city populated mainly by merchants, or known for its shopping opportunities. While the term "trade city" can be tautological because any settlement large enough to support any kind of labor specialization requires trade between two different parties to function, these cities are defined by the influence of its traders, merchants, and financiers in its daily life. Tends to be a port, especially a seaport in works set historically and even into the modern day as ships have been far and away the most cost-effective means of transporting cargo in large quantities. Access to large amounts of financial capital is also usually needed in order to support the high-risk high-reward ventures often undertaken by IntrepidMerchants. Usually has a BlackMarket and/or a BazaarOfTheBizarre. You can buy the best available items there, or at least have the most variety to choose from.

A city populated mainly by merchants, or known for its shopping opportunities. Tends to be a port or somewhere financially strategic. Usually has a BlackMarket and/or a BazaarOfTheBizarre. You can buy the best available items there, or at least have the most variety to choose from.

* The Republic DLC for ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'' introduces Merchant Republics ruled by families of {{Merchant Prince}}s, including many Real Life examples.

* Literature/{{Discworld}}'s Ankh-Morpork is without compare. Invaders often find that within a few days they no longer own their weapons and are just absorbed into the general ethnic character of the city.

* UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} was another major colonial-era center of transatlantic trade, also growing from import trade of sugar from the Caribbean and export of grain and lumber to Europe combined with a policy of religious tolerance which attracted religious-minority immigrants - by the eve of the Revolution the city was the second-largest in the English-speaking world after London.
* UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity was another city with colonial merchant roots as it started as a Dutch trading post, but moved ahead of other Eastern Seaboard port cities and seized the title for the US with the opening of the Erie Canal in the early 19th century as the canal made it easiest to ship stuff to and from the then-West (now Midwest) to the rest of the world through New York, helped by the fact that New York Harbor is one of the largest natural harbors in the world (which meant New York could easily handle a lot of ship traffic without needing a ton of infrastructure improvements). The establishment of the New York Stock Exchange from its roots in the Buttonwood Agreement of 1792 and its growth alongside New York itself through the 19th Century helped to seal the deal. Today, Manhattan's Fifth Avenue is world-renowned for its high-end shopping.
* UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}. On the other end of that east-west overwater trade route from New York was Chicago, because of its location right on a portage (a land bridge where boats or their cargo can easily be transferred between two bodies of water) between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Watershed - the Illinois and Michigan canal was later dug so that passenger, cargo, and ship could traverse together. When the rails began to be laid down, Chicago was the hub for many lines - this is probably the biggest reason for its growth into the Second City as being able to send goods easily in most any direction made it a great trading spot, whether they be the destination of many a Texan cattle drive (Chicago had many slaughterhouses, including the one in Upton Sinclair's ''The Jungle'') or if you're selling stuff by catalogue and use the rails to ship your sales (i.e,. Sears). Chicago's answer to Fifth Avenue for luxury shopping is its own Michigan Avenue, specifically the Magnificent Mile north of The Loop.
* UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} has developed into a shopping destination based on its tourism industry, whether as the starting/finishing point of many Caribbean cruises, its own world-famous beaches, or the large Hispanic population (richer tourists from countries with high import taxes like Brazil often find it cheaper to fly to Miami to go shopping for things like home electronics than to buy them locally).

!!North America
* The Mississipian mounds of Cahokia near present-day UsefulNotes/StLouis is considered the largest pre-Columbian urban center to have ever existed north of Mexico, with archaeologists estimating its peak population to be as high as 40,000 in the 13th century (which would put it on par with London in the same time period). Among the sites there is evidence of trade in copper, chert (a stone useful for making hoes for farming) and seashells with tribes as far north as the Great Lakes and as far south as the Gulf Coast.

!!South America
* Sao Paulo for Brazil. High-end luxury brands looking to enter the Brazilian market usually start in the Jardins district.

* UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity seized the title for the US with the opening of the Erie Canal in the early 19th Century, as the canal made it easiest to ship stuff to and from the then-West (now Midwest) to the rest of the world (i.e., the Eastern Seaboard and across the Atlantic) through New York. Manhattan's Fifth Avenue is world-renowned for its high-end shopping.

** Guangzhou could be considered Hong Kong's forerunner, as for several centuries that city was the only one where foreign merchants could legally trade in China - many countries and companies sent ships there. It began losing its footing in the mid-19th century as Britain and France forced open other ports to trade (and the UK founding Hong Kong); it wouldn't be until Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms in the 1970s and 80s that Guangzhou would start trying to catch up again.

* UsefulNotes/{{Dubai}}. Started out as an oil center, but what made it leap to the top of the global city list was early diversification into other industries like tourism, finance, and aviation.

* Kaesong, a city now located in UsefulNotes/{{North Korea}}, was this during the Goryeo Dynasty, the Dynasty that preceded the Joseon Dynasty that moved it's capital from Kaesong (then called Gaegyeong) to UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}}. The city prospered from trade with the neighboring kingdoms, including Song Dynasty and Heian Japan, and the city's merchants had a reputation for being skilled centuries after the fall of the dynasty. The city was so prosperous that if estimates were correct the city would have a population of half a million (more than the city's current population), which at that time (10th century) was quite a big deal.

* Most people outside Southern Africa tend to forget that Pretoria is the state capital of South Africa... simply because its younger sibling, Johannesburg, massively overshadows it both in size and international financial importance. The gold and diamond mines (and the rushes they spawned from in the C19th) lie behind the whole of Gauteng being the beating heart of the entire greater region's trade links, despite not being anywhere near a coastal port. Rivers, roads, rail, airport ''and mines'' for the win. For the biggest traditional ''sea port'', that would be Durban (sorry, Cape Town, but you know it's true). And, Jo'burg could still swallow ''both'' whole.

* UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. It seized the title for the US with the opening of the Erie Canal in the early 19th Century, as the canal made it easiest to ship stuff to and from the then-West (now Midwest) to the rest of the world (i.e., the Eastern Seaboard and across the Atlantic) through New York. Manhattan's Fifth Avenue is world-renowned for its high-end shopping.

** Guangzhou could be considered Hong Kong's forerunner, as for several centuries that city was the only one where foreign merchants could legally trade in China - many countries and companies sent ships there. It began losing its footing in the mid-19th century as Britain and France forced open other ports to trade (and the UK founding Hong Kong); it wouldn't be until Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms in the 1970's and 80's that Guangzhou would start trying to catch up again.
** UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}: The city historically has had greater commercial impact than the Imperial Chinese government gave it (it wasn't considered an official city until 1927, only considered a county seat for most of its history), but it was one of two major Western-financed centers of banking during the 19th Century until the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War caused most foreign firms to flee for Hong Kong. The city managed to hold itself in the midst of the dearth of opportunities for growth until it was able to start growing again when China began opening up to foreign investment starting in the 1970's.

** Akihabara can be thought of as a mix of these two things - it was a radio and electronic parts mecca after the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, where shops were small (and often black-market) but one could find parts for nearly anything electronics-related. Then just as the wave for futuristic parts passed, the anime explosion and the emergence of otaku culture starting in the 1980's revived the area, this time as the place where one could get all sorts of anime merchandise.

* The site of Alexandria in Egypt was recognized by [[UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat the founder himself]] as having great potential as a trading center when it was established in 331 BC thanks to its protective (if tricky to navigate, necessitating the construction of the Great Lighthouse to guide ships in) harbor, both nearby fertile fields to feed it and a lagoon to protect it, and location near the Nile Delta (which allowed sea trade from both upriver and the eastern Mediterranean as well as land trade from the Sinai and beyond to the east and along the Saharan routes to the west). The city also became a major center of knowledge as the trading was coupled with an intense effort to copy manuscripts that came along for the ride which was stored at the Great Library. For the next nine centuries it served as the capital of Egypt and was a truly cosmopolitan city which held a large Jewish and Hellenistic population. The Arabs conquering Egypt in 641 AD and established a new capital in Fustat (now Cairo) meant Alexandria lost its preeminence in Egyptian politics and intellectualism but remained a bustling port until Napoleon came knocking in 1798. The British took control of the city three years later and the city saw a major resurgence back to international prominence until nationalist Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized much of the Egyptian economy in the 1950's, forcing much of the city's Greek population to leave.

* In Written by the Victors, an [[Series/StargateAtlantis SGA]] fanfic by Speranza, the main characters turn Atlantis into this as it's the only city that could protect an inter-planet market from the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Wraith]]

** TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms has Waterdeep, Calimport, Raven's Bluff... Amn in general is known as "Merchant's Domain" -- people there call [[GrimReaper the god of death]] "Black Forecloser" and that's not even a joke. Its capital city Athkatla (nicknamed "City of Coin") is [[UpToEleven so much of a merchant city]], it's a HolyCity of the trade goddess.
** Syrania in fourth edition of TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}.

* Tredroy in TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}.
* The capital city of Mercadia, Mercadia City, from the TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering set ''Mercadian Masques''.

* The capital city of Mercadia, Mercadia City, from the MagicTheGathering set ''Mercadian Masques''.

* Byzel/Baizel in ''VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3'' is a port city full of merchants, and has a Black Market that you can access by waiting for it to become night.
** Ironically though, it's the only town in the game where you can't buy regular supplies.