Jakob Fugger "The Rich"

The early rise of the Fuggers was marked essentially by sharp business sense and fortuitous marriage alliances. The family successfully expanded the volume and range of their business and allied their interests with those of well-placed merchant and patrician families. Under Jakob the Rich, who played an ever more central role in the business after the end of the fifteenth century, the tactics changed. He established lasting business connections with the Habsburg dynasty by supplying credit to the profligate Sigismund (1427–1496), archduke of Tyrol. Offering similar services to Emperors Frederick III (1415–1493; ruled 1440–1493) and Maximilian I (1459–1519; ruled 1493–1519), he received interests in mining enterprises in Tyrol, Carinthia, Thuringia, and Hungary. Without abandoning their traditional trade in textiles and other commodities, the Fuggers now used political connections to enter the most speculative and profitable enterprises of the age. In addition to providing banking services to the Habsburg dynasty and the Roman Church, they joined syndicates to monopolize the production of copper, to organize voyages to the Indies, and to colonize the forests of Brazil. Their financial might enabled them to control political destinies, as when they provided funds to purchase the election of Charles V (1500–1558; ruled 1519–1556) as Holy Roman emperor. Most spectacularly the Fuggers managed financial transfers for the sale of indulgences that financed the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and, incidentally, unleashed the reforming spirit of Martin Luther (1483–1546).

It was also under the leadership of Jakob the Rich that the Fuggers assumed the position of social elites. They acquired numerous landed estates; they were raised to the status of imperial nobility (1511) and imperial counts (1514); they expanded their palaces in Augsburg into truly magnificent, representative buildings; and they created numerous pious and charitable foundations, including the Fuggerei (1516), a housing development for the poor and elderly.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/fugger-family#ixzz1GG1wBGyO

Wikipedia: "Ulrich's youngest brother Jakob Fugger (illustration, below) was born in 1459, and was to become the most famous member of the dynasty. He married Sibylla Artzt in 1498, but they had no children. He was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in May 1511, and in 1519, led a consortium of German and Italian businessmen that loaned Charles V 850,000 florins (about 95,625 oz(t) of gold) to procure his election as Holy Roman Emperor over Francis I of France.[3] The Fugger's contribution was 543,000 florins.

In 1494 the Fuggers established their first public company. Jakob's aim was to establish a copper monopoly by opening foundries in Hohenkirchen and Fuggerau (named for the family, in Carinthia) and by expanding the sales organization in Europe, especially the Antwerp agency. Jakob leased the copper mines in Neusohl (modern Banská Bystrica, Slovakia) in 1495, eventually making them up into the greatest mining centre of the time.

At the height of his power Jakob Fugger was sharply criticized by his contemporaries, especially by Ulrich von Hutten and Martin Luther, for urging the Pope to rescind or amend the prohibition on the levying of interest and for the sale of indulgences and benefices. The imperial fiscal and governmental authorities in Nuremberg brought action against him and other merchants trying to halt their monopolistic tendencies."

Wikipedia: "In 1511, Jakob deposited 15,000 florins as an endowment for some almshouses. In 1514, he bought up part of Augsburg and in 1516 he came to agreement with the city that he would build and provide a number of almshouses for needy citizens. By 1523, 52 houses had been built, and the Fuggerei had come into existence. It is still used today.[6]"