hey guys, newbie here.

confused! in the bottom right hand corner is the list with all the civs and their scores. next to the names are little symbols. one of these symbols is the arrows arranged in a circle, which i guess stands for trade? when i play im always the only civ not to have this symbol.

what does it stand for?
the benefits?
how do you get it ?

sorry, i guess this is really straightforward but im new to this. i like the game, it has potential to be fantastic, but im not good at it !

thanks for your help

That means that they're connected to you by trade network. You'll never get that for your name.

The benefits are that you can trade resources with them. You can trade techs whether or not they're connected to your trade network and the only consideration is whether or not they want to give it to you.

You get it by being connected to their capital city by either road or river. Once you get Sailing, this expands to include coasts. Once you get Astronomy, it expands to allow you to trade across the ocean.

An addendum to what Petey said: having that symbol also means that your cities can have trade routes with other civs cities. Those trade routes earn you more coins as you'll see if you check out the upper left-hand corner of any of your city screens. It's amazing what being able to open trade routes can do for your income (and, by relation, your science.) :)

Also, religions spread by trade network. So if you don't found an early religion yourself, you can count on that symbol to get one spread to you in short order. It seems that on the higher levels, Confucianism (Code of Laws) and Christianity (Theocracy) are the only religions you have a real shot at founding yourself, unless you had a gifted start. Spreading your borders without having to build Obelisks can mean one or two more axes built and that extra layer of fog busted... sometimes the balance of victory when taking on an enemy or nearby barbarians.

It's amazing what being able to open trade routes can do for your income (and, by relation, your science.)

It's even more ammazing what they can do for your enemies. Giving them also not just extra income.. but letting them map you out easy just before they hit you. That route ends up costing you many times over.