Zahlen, bitte! 809,825 Guilders of Jacob Fugger – Early Modern Elon Musk

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500 years ago, Jacob Fugger (the Rich), as he was called by his contemporaries, died. It took his nephew and successor, Anton Fugger, two years to complete the full inventory of the Fugger family. It is still considered the most important source for the emerging world trade that constituted Jacob Fugger's wealth.

When he died, the far-flung Fugger empire had made a surplus of two million guilders. Jacob Fugger's share of the total capital was 809,825 guilders, of which he had used 142,035 guilders for personal expenses, including the Fuggerei in Augsburg, the first social housing settlement. He was the richest man of his time.

Zahlen, bitte!

In this section, we present amazing, impressive, informative and funny figures ("Zahlen") from the fields of IT, science, art, business, politics and, of course, mathematics every Tuesday. The wordplay "Zahlen, bitte!" for a section about numbers is based on the ambiguity of the German word "Zahlen." On one hand, "Zahlen" can be understood as a noun in the sense of digits and numerical values, which fits the theme of the section. On the other hand, the phrase "Zahlen, bitte!" is reminiscent of a waiter's request in a restaurant or bar when they are asked to bring the bill. Through this association, the section acquires a playful and slightly humorous undertone that catches the readers' attention and makes them curious about the presented numbers and facts.

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In a year when much was written about the wealth of Tesla owner Elon Musk or Oracle founder Larry Ellison, it is worth taking a look at Jacob Fugger at the end. With his death on December 30, 1525, an overview of the family fortune was initiated, which wrote economic history as the Inventory of the Fugger Company from 1527 [PDF view], as it allowed the Genesis of Modern Capitalism [PDF] to be understood. Jacob Fugger, as an early capitalist, was the richest man of his time, even though rulers like Kanaan Mansa Musa existed before him who were considerably wealthier.

Wealth Measured on a State Scale

The official website of the Fugger family mentions, in determining his wealth, a (no longer existing) business portal from Microsoft that had compared Jacob Fugger to Bill Gates. According to this, Fugger's fortune was said to correspond to 10 percent of the economic output of the Holy Roman Empire (of the German Nation), while Bill Gates' fortune accounted for only 0.5 percent of US economic output. Although the reference figures are missing here, the numbers still roughly illustrate the dimension involved.

The rise of the Fugger family began four generations before Jacob Fugger with the weaver Hans Fugger, who settled in Augsburg and specialized in the production of fustian. This fabric had warp threads of linen and weft threads (the filling) of cotton, which was supplied from Italy. The Fuggers became rich through the cotton trade with Italy and eventually obtained Augsburg citizenship.

Jacob Fugger, the youngest of three brothers, was sent to Venice at the age of 14 for commercial training, where he not only came to know and appreciate the Renaissance but also the secret of double-entry bookkeeping with debit and credit.

Profits from Silver and Copper Mining

When Jacob joined the Fugger partnership agreement, he diversified the company with mining in Tyrol [PDF]: he financed the court of the Tyrolean Archduke Sigismund the Rich and secured his loans with mining rights.

To Austrian silver, the (highly secret) mining of copper in the Carpathians in Banská Bystrica was later added, through which he eventually asserted a monopoly on copper over his competitors. Fugger benefited from the fact that the Portuguese under Vasco da Gama had found the sea route to India. From the Fugger office in Antwerp, the copper semi-finished products were sent to Lisbon, from where they were shipped to India, as wreck finds testified.

Jacob Fugger and his brothers were heavily involved in politics. They financed the election of the Habsburg Maximilian I as emperor, and later also the election of his grandson Charles as King Charles I. In return, they received the mercury mines in Almadén, Spain.

Fugger's Indulgence Trade Annoyed Martin Luther

They took over the indulgence trade under Pope Alexander VI, securing half of the revenue. Jacob Fugger himself financed a theological opinion by Johannes Eck, which proved that an interest rate of five percent was not usury but pleasing to God. This enraged Martin Luther: "Therefore, the current dealings with money are unjust and against God, corrupting and draining countries and people. One would really have to put a bridle in the mouth of this Fugger and similar companies."

Finally, Fugger invested a lot of money in the bloody suppression of the Swabian Peasants' War, the uprising 500 years ago. His social side was expressed in the construction of the Fuggerei, which still exists today, probably the oldest social housing settlement in the world. Here, impoverished Catholic Augsburg craftsmen and their families could find affordable accommodation.

In return, they had to pray three times a day for the souls of the Fuggers. The decline of the Fuggers began immediately after the death of Jacob Fugger. His successor Anton Fugger still tried to save the inherited fortune from the rapidly declining mining through real estate investments as Latin America began to be plundered, but he was no longer the richest man of his time. "Nihil sub sole perpetuum" (Nothing under the sun is eternal) is a saying attributed to him.

Those who are in a festive mood and interested in the Fuggers can enjoy the six-part TV series "From the Loom to World Power", a German-Czech production that staged early capitalism in the fairy-tale style of "Three Wishes for Cinderella".

(cbr)