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The Fugger dynasty
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The Fugger family settled in Augsburg in the fourteenth century and were originally active in the linen trade. They gradually moved into the even more profitable business of money-lending, which they established throughout Germany and beyond, becoming the biggest banking outfit in Europe and reputedly five times richer than the Medici, their Italian counterparts. Although the youngest of seven brothers,
Jacob Fugger II
(1459-1525) became the head of the firm, and can legitimately be regarded as the first modern business tycoon.
He established the family interests as a public company, expanding its activities by gaining mining rights for copper and silver in the Tyrol and Silesia and entering the profitable spice trade. In addition, he safeguarded his prosperity by spreading his assets across a wide range of investments, including the acquisition of land - which brought the family into the ranks of the nobility. He also moved into big-time politics by initiating the long-running funding of the Habsburgs, whose goal of European domination seemed to have been achieved when Charles I of Spain won election in 1519 as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V through outright bribes to the seven Electors with money largely supplied by the Fuggers. The Reformation dealt a severe blow to the family, who lost key markets by remaining faithful to Catholicism, though the Habsburg connection was put to good use in the establishment of business interests in the burgeoning Spanish empire. Some four million ducats lent to the Habsburgs have never been repaid, but the Fuggers were able to sit back on the income from their landed holdings. To this day, the three branches of the family retain a high position in the German league-table of wealth - and they still own their own bank Other useful information
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Germany,
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