Jakob Fugger paid for Charles V's election, and his heirs lost much of the fortune when the Spanish crown stopped paying

Jakob Fugger of Augsburg built a fortune in mining, trade and lending. In 1519 Charles of Habsburg needed money to buy the votes of the prince-electors. About 850,000 guilders went to the electors. Fugger supplied about 550,000, the Welser family about 150,000, and Italian bankers the rest. By 1521 Charles owed Fugger more than 600,000 guilders. He paid 415,000 by granting the firm Tyrol's silver and copper mining. At the 1523 Diet of Nuremberg, Fugger reminded the emperor that he could not have won the crown without Fugger's help. In 1521 Fugger endowed the Fuggerei, a walled estate for poor Catholic citizens of Augsburg. He died childless on 30 December 1525. The firm passed to his nephews Raymund and Anton. The heirs' inventory showed assets of 3,000,058 guilders against liabilities of 867,797. Anton doubled the fortune by 1546 and died in 1560. The family then lost a large part of its wealth in the Spanish state bankruptcies of 1557, 1560 and 1575. Further Spanish defaults in 1596 and 1607 hit the remaining loans^†. The company was dissolved in 1657^†. In 2026 the Fuggerei has 67 houses for about 150 residents. The rent is still one Rhenish guilder a year, 0.88 euro, and residents pray daily for the founders. The family foundations run it. The Fürst Fugger Privatbank in Augsburg, founded in 1954, has no direct link to the old firm.