Innovation & Wealth › Medieval & Renaissance money › Medici Bank
Jakob Fugger 'the Rich'
1459–1525; Habsburg loans from 1487· Innovator or entrepreneur· Innovators & entrepreneurs
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
Augsburg merchant-banker who became Europe's richest man by lending to Habsburg rulers in exchange for control of silver and copper mines.
See it on the Innovation & Wealth map →What happened
Fugger (1459–1525), from an Augsburg cloth-trading family, learned bookkeeping in Venice. From 1487 he lent to Habsburg rulers, repaid in silver from Tyrolean mines; with partners he dominated Hungarian copper. In 1519 he supplied about 544,000 florins to buy the votes that made Charles V emperor, and Charles later quashed an anti-monopoly case against him. At his death the firm held about 2 million guilders, sometimes put near $400 billion today; estimates vary widely.
Impact on society and the economy
He showed private credit could make emperors. The Habsburgs and his family gained; miners and smaller rivals lost, and he helped fund the armies that crushed the 1525 Peasants' War.
Fortune, legacy and how we know
The Fugger archive in Dillingen holds his letters and balance sheets, including the 1527 inventory. His 1523 letter reminding Charles V that he owed his crown to Fugger loans survives. Legacy: the Fuggerei.
Still debated
Converting his wealth into today's money is guesswork; methods based on prices, wages or share of Europe's economy give wildly different answers.
Inside this (1)
Connections (3)
▸Medici Bank was eclipsed as Europe's top bank by Jakob Fugger 'the Rich'Mostly agreed
The connection
The Medici Bank shrank after Cosimo de' Medici died in 1464, weakened by bad loans to rulers and careless branch managers, and failed when the family was expelled from Florence in 1494. Fugger rose in those same years, lending to rulers but securing loans with mine output, and won much papal business, ironically under the Medici pope Leo X.
When and how
Florence, Rome and Augsburg, from the 1460s to the 1510s; Fugger's Rome branch handled papal transfers and the indulgence campaign of 1515–17.
How sure are we?
Raymond de Roover's study of Medici records documents the decline; Fugger account books show the papal business. The Fugger firm's capital far exceeded the Medici's.
Debates
Whether Fugger consciously learned from Medici mistakes is unknown; he trained in Venice, not Florence, and timing alone may explain the handover.
▸Jakob Fugger 'the Rich' founded The Fuggerei social housing estateWell documented
The connection
Fugger paid for the estate out of profits from Habsburg loans, mining and trade, and built it to outlast him. Instead of a one-time gift of alms, he created a perpetual foundation whose endowment, not the rent, covers upkeep, and he set the rules on who may live there.
When and how
Augsburg, 1516–1523; built by master builder Thomas Krebs; run ever since by the Fugger family foundation.
How we know
The 1521 founding deed survives in the Fugger archive, and the foundation still runs the estate under its original terms.
Debates
Whether piety, hope of salvation or reputation drove the gift is debated; residents still pray daily for the founders, as the deed requires.
▸Jakob Fugger 'the Rich' sponsored a defense of interest against Church ban on usuryMostly agreed
The connection
The Church condemned charging interest as usury, though merchants used workarounds. Fugger lent at interest openly and wanted that legitimized. He backed theologian Johann Eck, later Luther's opponent, who argued that a 5% return on certain contracts was lawful, and paid for Eck's trip to debate the question at Bologna in 1515.
When and how
Augsburg, Ingolstadt and Bologna, 1514–1515; Johann Eck, Jakob Fugger and Bologna's theologians.
How sure are we?
Eck's surviving writings and contemporary accounts of the disputation; Fugger's sponsorship is reported by historians, though records of payments are sparse.
Debates
How much the debate changed actual practice is unclear; the Church's ban eroded only gradually, and Luther denounced the Fuggers by name in 1520.