Historic Alleys

Perhaps we give too much credit to the Portuguese when it came to the Malabar trade. In a manner, it is right as they possessed the might and the control of the sea route to make it all happen. But what most casual readers of history gloss over is the simple fact that the finances and string pulling at times, originated elsewhere. Two major players were families who had hands on the strings, and one being the Fuggers, whom we had come across briefly in a previous article (then again, there are plenty of books written about the Fuggers). But the pioneering family of the two, were the risk taking Welser’s from Augsburg, Germany. Not much has been written about them in English and only recently has substantial information surfaced. They were an enterprising family, so let’s meet them and take a quick look at their connections to the Malabar spice trade.