by The German Banking Dynasties That Financed Emperors and New Worlds
This nomination for the Fugger and Welser families of Augsburg, the preeminent German banking and merchant dynasties of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Fuggers, led by Jakob “the Rich,” built a financial empire by controlling Central European silver and copper mining, then using that wealth to become the primary bankers to the Habsburg emperors, financing their wars and elections. The Welsers, equally powerful, diversified into colonial ventures, notably receiving a grant to administer Venezuela for a time. These families operated as multinational conglomerates, with interests in mining, banking, spice trading, and manufacturing. Their capital financed the political ambitions of Europe’s most powerful family and the early exploration of the Americas. The Fugger and Welser represent the apex of late medieval high finance, where private banking houses wielded power exceeding that of many states. They proved that control over key commodities (metals) and access to sovereign debt could create fortunes so vast they could underwrite empires and continents, but also that such over-reliance on a single debtor (the Habsburgs) could lead to spectacular collapse.
