In Venice, he became a merchant.

One of the interesting facts about John Cabot is that in Venice, he became a merchant. Venice's prosperity was founded on trade, particularly with China and Japan in the Far East. Europeans were huge fans of spices and silks from the Far East. John Cabot turned become a trader in order to make money, and he went as far as Mecca, where products from the East and the West were exchanged. Here, he realized the wealth that might be attained by travelling to the Far East and picked up crucial skills like navigating, sailing, and map reading.

Cabot would be qualified to engage in marine trade, particularly trade to the eastern Mediterranean, the source of much of his income, once he attained full citizenship of Venice in 1476. Venice. Probably not long after, he started this deal. He is mentioned selling a Cretan slave in a 1483 document. At the time, the Sultanate of Egypt's domains covered the majority of what is now Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. This does not support Cabot's subsequent claim that he visited Mecca, which he made to the Milanese envoy in London in 1497. He may have learned more about the origins of the oriental commodities (such spices and silk) he would trade in this Mediterranean trade than most people.