Fugger

Portrait of Jakob Fugger the Younger by Albrecht Dürer,

Name: Fugger Family

Achievements: Family of merchant bankers who  introduced capitalist economics.

Born: 15^th and 16^th centuries; Augsburg

Died: 15^th and 16^th centuries; Augsburg

Field & Discipline: Banking

Language: German

Life & Times:

Hans Fugger was the first of the family to establish a connection with Augsburg when he arrived there from the Austrian village of Graben in 1367. He started off as a weaver but by the time he died in 1408 he had made a fortune through trading.

One of his sons, the flamboyant Andreas, became extremely rich very quickly and then went bankrupt; another son, Jacob I, became even richer and more respectable. After Jacob's death in 1469, his sons began expanding the family trade internationally. They also rose socially and after doing a deal with the Emperor Frederick III were granted a coat of arms which incorporated a lily,  after which the family was known as Fugger von der Lilie.

They established an agency in the German trading community in Venice (the Fondaco dei Tedeschi)  where in 1478  the youngest brother, Jacob II studied modern bookkeeping. He took charge of the family agency in Innsbruck in 1485 and began taking the actions which made the family fortune.   Abandoning the trade in spices, silks and woollens,  he turned to bills of exchange and mining interests.

In 1487 he lent a large sum of money to the Archduke of Tyrol, securing the loan with a mortgage on the Archduke's most productive silver mines.  The following year he cut an even better deal: this time the loan was secured by the entire silver production of the Schwatz mines at a ridiculously low price.

The Fuggers then expanded into copper, lending Emperor [loaned money to] Maximilian I* a sum of money for his war chest, and receiving as security the output of the Tyrolese copper mines. The Fuggers endowed special schools in Austria (the Bergschule), to train mineral analysts and mining overseers, the Bergschule at Villach being attended by [financed training of] Paracelsus*.

In 1494 the Fuggers established their first public company. At the end of the century, together with other leading Augsburg merchants, the Fuggers formed a copper monopoly by opening foundries and shipping Hungarian copper through Danzig to the Netherlands, where they set up an Antwerp connection.

By this time they were on good terms with the papacy, handling remittances to the papal court for church benefices and the sale of indulgences. From 1508 to 1515 they leased the Roman mint.

The Emperor Maximilian was extremely pleased with the Fuggers, not just for lending money but for the speed with which they did so. By using what was then the ultra-modern bill of exchange, the Fuggers could move money around all over Europe at a fraction of the time taken to transport bullion. [loaned money to] Henry VIII* of England was a Fugger customer. When Maximilian died in 1519, it was Fugger money which allowed [loaned money to] Charles V*  to bribe enough supporters to buy the title of Holy Roman Emperor against the claims of Francis I of France.

In 1524 the Fuggers took their first lease on the income of the Spanish crown, and at the same time business with Charles V's brother Ferdinand brought about a Fugger connection with Naples. Attempts were made to attack their monopolistic position in the mines and there was unrest among artisans in Augsburg but Jacob managed all these crisis and when he died in 1525 the Fuggers were easily the most influential financiers of the day with business connections all over Europe and agencies in Hungary, Poland, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands as well as in Austria and Germany.

In central Europe their silver- mining possessions were being given a boost by the publication in 1526 of [boosted by] Agricola's* book on mining.

Anton Fugger took over from Jacob and continued the policy of funding monarchs and supporting the Roman Catholic church. His loans to Charles V enabled the Emperor to fight the German Protestants. After Charles handed over his Spanish empire to his son [loaned money to] Philip II of Spain* in 1555, Anton became Philip's creditor, and so played his part in the exercise and expansion of Spanish power.

Anton was a good businessman and he diversified by setting up trade connections with Peru and Chile, becoming involved in the African-American slave trade, and in mining operations in Sweden and Norway. His ventures into the spice trade and the importation of Hungarian cattle, together with his shrewd land purchases, meant that when he died in 1560 he left an enormous fortune.

The family remained wealthy but from this time the descendants of Jacob the Rich gradually turned away from direct commercial dealings and concentrated on building magnificent houses on their estates and living as cultured landowners.

OTHER CONNECTIONS: They employed [employed] Estienne*

Assessment: Family of merchant bankers who  introduced capitalist economics.

Oneliner: Fugger family, influential Renaissance bankers

Bibliography:

• Ehrenberg, Richard, Capital & Finance in the Age of the Renaissance, Jonathan Cape, London, 1928.
• Klarwill, Victor von, The Fugger News Letters, John Lane, The Bodley Head Ltd., London, 1926.

List of wealthiest historical figures