Cacao or Joseph Ermeler's Travels
Copyright© 2026 by Argon
Chapter 1: The Cargo Master
Joseph Ermeler gave a sigh of relief. A train of over 20 ox carts, carrying trading goods from the rich Italian ports of Genoa and Venice, was now in approach of the Free Imperial City of Augsburg, and the high walls and turrets were now in clear sight of the weary wagoners and their armed escort of Swiss mercenaries. The whole train was under the command of Jacob Fugger, eldest son of Master Fugger, of Augsburg, the most important merchant of the city and perhaps of all German lands. Joseph was second, for he was the cargo master for the Welser family of merchants, the second-most-important trading house. He and the younger Fugger had a good accord with each other, focussing on getting the precious cargoes through numerous foreign dominions, but also through the towering Alps without paying overly high tolls to the local rulers. It helped that their escort was thirty-men strong and consisting of the feared Swiss landsknechte1. Their service was costing them dearly, but they could cross through the smaller principalities with only token tolls to pay, for not many of the barons had the men to enforce higher tolls against thirty hardened mercenaries.
There came the younger Fugger.
“Think we can make it inside the walls before dark, Joseph?” he asked. He was more of a skilled trader and less of a leader of wagon trains.
“If none of the wagons breaks down, we shall have supper at home,” Joseph answered.
“Think your master will help to finance the journey?”
“I hope that he will, Jacob. There are riches to make with spices and other wares. Think of white china plates, think of black teas!”
“It will be a perilous enterprise.”
“Yes, but again, we shall be rich if we return. For you, as your father’s eldest son, the risk is higher, but I have nothing to inherit, nothing to warrant a seat in the Guild.”
“So you would undertake that journey, friend Joseph?”
“Yes, and I shall put up all my savings for the enterprise.”
“I shall speak to my father. With you as cargo master, he will join the cartel.”
“That would help to convince Master Welser. Will you lead the enterprise?”
Fugger shook his head. “It is time I married and stayed in Augsburg, Friend. The undertaking will have to be in your able hands.”
“Would that it will, Friend Jacob!”
As they came closer to the walls of Augsburg, Joseph thought more about the proposal they would present to their masters. The Genoese merchants, with the help of their navy, planned a trading journey to the far-away Spice Islands or Maluka Islands, to buy spices from the Portuguese who ruled one of the larger islands. On the return, the merchants would visit Portuguese Goa, on the west coast of the huge Indian peninsula, where they would trade for spices, but also for goods, such as precious China plate from the Chinese Empire. According to the Genoese merchants, profits would be staggering for those who survived the journey.
The trading flotilla would comprise at least three carracks2, each armed with twelve falcons3 and more, mighty guns, and just as many culverins4. There would be regular Genoese soldiers on board, in addition to the sailors, and Joseph understood that the merchants — if tempted — would not be averse to some freebooting. That, he would keep to himself.
Dusk was on the city, when the iron tyres of the ox carts rumpled over the old cobble stones of the Wertach Bridge Gate, and then onwards to the warehouses. Since most of the populace had finished the day’s work, many of the city’s folks lined the narrow streets as the carts made their way. When they passed the large house of the Welser family, Joseph saw his master, Martin Welser, standing at a first floor window and waving to him. Joseph stood in his stirrups and bowed to his master, but then, the distribution of the wares and goods took his whole attention. Servants of the Fugger and Welser families rushed to take care of his mount, and others led the Swiss to their quarters, whilst workmen laboured to push the loaded wagons into the warehouses, to be unloaded on the morrow.
Joseph himself was led to his quarters in the back of the Welser House where servants had prepared a hot bath for him. After cleaning himself from the travel dust and sweat, and clad in fresh garments, he was summoned to his master.
“Master Welser asks for you, Joseph!”
The voice of the young apprentice merchant was full of importance, and Joseph gave the boy a grin.
“Then I had better heed the summons,” he answered, leaving his rooms and following the youngster.
He found Master Welser in his private quarters and sitting at a laid table.
“Sit, Joseph, and sate your hunger and thirst,” he invited him, giving him a benevolent smile. After all, Joseph had served the Welsers for a long time and well.
It was over fifteen years before that Joseph had been apprenticed to Martin Welser, the merchant, and he had risen to cargo master in the Welser House.The city of Augsburg was as much home to him now as any other place, and more so than the small town of his birth, Heidingsfeld, a week’s travel to the north. At thirteen years, the man who had sired him, a merchant himself, had taken him to Augsburg to be apprenticed.
If truth be told, it was solely for the peace in his house that Judokus Ermeler had shipped the boy to faraway Augsburg, for the lad was a constant bone of contention between Judokus and his wife, who did not take kindly to the fact that Joseph was her husband’s sole offspring and born to their maidservant. When Joseph’s mother died of a rotten tooth, Judokus took the boy in to teach him trading. Magda Ermeler had made both males’ lives a living hell until Judokus had caved in. Once a deal had been struck with the Welsers, Judokus gave his son five Ducats gold as a farewell gift and loaded his wagon with merchant goods for the long ride home.
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