Portrait of Jakob Fugger the Rich

People/magnate, financier

Jakob Fugger the Rich

Jakob Fugger the Rich (1459–1525), magnate, financier, from Germany. Linked to silver, copper.

The lucky break

From 1485 he led the Innsbruck branch and used loans to Archduke Sigismund to win low-price metal supplies and privileges.1,2

Legacy

Built a combined system of finance and politics, backing Maximilian, and entered Hungarian mining and metals trade centred on Neusohl from 1494.1,2

Story cards

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Where next

Mines

OwnedSchwaz silver mines (Falkenstein)His firm came to dominate Tyrolean silver and copper mining at Schwaz.1

Sources

  1. Fugger, Jakob der Reiche Neue Deutsche Biographie / Deutsche Biographie
  2. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons

Pictures on this page: Albrecht Dürer 080.jpg, Albrecht Dürer (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Dolcoath tin mine, Camborne, Cornwall: miners in a mine shaft, standing on wooden platforms connected by ladders. Photograph by J. C. Burrow, 1890/1910., Burrow, J. C., 1852-1914 (Public Domain Mark 1.0).