Jakob Fugger

Jakob Fugger was a descendant of the Fugger merchant family that rose to prominence in the 15th and 16th centuries. He was born in 1459 in Augsburg, a free imperial city in the Holy Roman Empire. He began his education at the age of 14 in Venice, where he learned about banking, bookkeeping, and the metal trade. He also became a cleric and held several prebendaries. He returned to Augsburg in 1487 and joined his brothers Ulrich and Georg in the family business, which was mainly based on the textile trade with Italy. The Fuggers soon expanded their operations to include banking transactions with the House of Habsburg and the Roman Curia, as well as mining ventures in Tyrol, Bohemia, and Hungary. They acquired the rights to mine copper, silver, quicksilver, and cinnabar, and established a near monopoly on the European copper market. Jakob Fugger became the de facto head of the Fugger business after his brothers' deaths in 1510 and 1506 respectively. He amassed an enormous fortune and became one of the richest men in history. He was also a major political player who financed the rise of Maximilian I and Charles V of the Habsburg dynasty. He supported their campaigns against France, the Ottoman Empire, and the Protestant Reformation. He also arranged several strategic marriages that secured the Habsburgs' control over Bohemia and Hungary. Jakob Fugger was also a patron of the arts and sciences. He commissioned paintings by Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein the Younger, collected books and manuscripts, and corresponded with scholars like Erasmus of Rotterdam and Ulrich von Hutten. He also founded several charitable institutions in Augsburg, such as hospitals, churches, and schools. His most famous legacy is the Fuggerei, a social housing complex for poor Catholic citizens that he established in 1521. The rent for an apartment in the Fuggerei was one Rheinischer Gulden per year (equivalent to 0.88 Euro today), plus three prayers a day for Jakob Fugger and his family. The Fuggerei still exists today and is the oldest social housing complex in the world. Jakob Fugger died in 1525 at the age of 66 from natural causes. He was buried in the Fugger Chapel that he had built in St. Anna's Church in Augsburg. His tomb is adorned with a bronze statue by Peter Vischer the Elder. He left his business and assets to his nephew Anton Fugger, who continued to run the company until its decline in the 17th century.