The Fuggers of Augsburg

As the wealthiest German merchant family of the sixteenthcentury, the Fuggers have attracted wide scholarly attention. In contrast to theother famous merchant family of the period, the Medici of Florence, however, noEnglish-language work on them has been available until now. "TheFuggers of Augsburg [...]
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As the wealthiest German merchant family of the sixteenthcentury, the Fuggers have attracted wide scholarly attention. In contrast to theother famous merchant family of the period, the Medici of Florence, however, noEnglish-language work on them has been available until now. "TheFuggers of Augsburg "offers a concise and engaging overview thatbuilds on the latest scholarly literature and the author's own work onsixteenth-century merchant capitalism. Mark H berlein traces the history of thefamily from the weaver Hans Fugger's immigration to the imperial city of Augsburg in1367 to the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. Because the Fuggers' extensivebusiness activities involved long-distance trade, mining, state finance, andoverseas ventures, the family exemplifies the meanings of globalization at thebeginning of the modern age. The book also covers the political, social, and cultural roles of the Fuggers: their patronage of Renaissance artists, the founding of the largest social housing project of its time, their support ofCatholicism in a city that largely turned Protestant during the Reformation, andtheir rise from urban merchants to imperial counts and feudal lords. H berleinargues that the Fuggers organized their social rise in a way that allowed them to bemerchants and feudal landholders, burghers and noblemen at the same time. Theirstory therefore provides a window on social mobility, cultural patronage, religion, and values during the Renaissance and the Reformation.