American journalist Greg Steinmetz has estimated his overall wealth to be around $400 billion adjusted to 2015, equivalent to 2% of the GDP of Europe at that time.

[7][8] Loans given to Emperor Frederick III and supplies given to his entourage by Ulrich Fugger were the reason for the family being granted the lily coat of arms in 1473.

Until 2009 historians assumed that Jakob Fugger, who was a minor order at the age of 12, had lived as a canon in a church located in Herrieden.

A document from the Austrian state archive has now shown that Jakob Fugger was already representing his family business in Venice in 1473 at the age of 14.

[10] Other research showed that Jakob Fugger spent the years between 1473 and 1487 mostly at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the house of German merchants in Venice.

Through this he forced more and more mine operators in the area of Gastein and Schladming to sell their silver directly to the Fugger family instead of intermediary traders.

The archduke had as the sole owner of the Tyrol property rights handed out permissions for mining operations to private investors which in return had to pay a share of their profits to Sigismund.

Notable was the form of payment: Instead of paying the Fürst directly the Fugger family paid the money to his creditors as well as providing the wages for the royal court and craftsmen.

Fugger met an engineer by the name of Jan Thurzo, and they formed a powerful copper company in the neighbouring town of Banská Bystrica in 1495.

In his view, the House of Habsburg was bound to be the dominant power and dynasty within the German region, and as such should receive his financial and political support.

Despite having constant financial difficulties due to an extravagant lifestyle and many failed political projects his reign saw the kingdoms of Spain, Bohemia and Hungary gained for the House of Habsburg, not by waging war but through advantageous marriage arrangements which were funded with the help of Jakob Fugger.

[20] However, close to the end of his life Maximilian was so heavily indebted to Jakob Fugger that he had no choice but to continue his support for the Emperor to still be able reclaim his outstanding debits.

Thereby he helped prevent the election of Francis I of France which would have endangered his claims and investments gravely, although it also made him highly dependent on the House of Habsburg.

Much later the Fugger family lost a large portion of their wealth following three Spanish state bankruptcies (1557, 1560 and 1575) under the reign of Philip II of Spain.

[25] Mines funded by Fugger were constructed in Neusohl (present-day Banská Bystrica, Slovakia), at the time part of the Hungarian Kingdom.

For transportation to the ports of Gdańsk, Stettin and Lübeck on the Baltic Sea Fugger funded the construction of a new road across the Jablunkov Pass.

From those ports the copper was shipped to the Russian region and additionally through Antwerp to Lisbon where it was an important Portuguese trade good destined for the export to India.

[32] The commodity trade played a relatively small role compared to the two main branches of the Fugger business, banking and mining.

Along with other merchant houses of Germany and Italy he contributed to a fleet of 22 Portuguese ships led by Francisco de Almeida that sailed to India in the year 1505 and returned in 1506.

[33] Soon afterwards the King declared the spice trade a monopoly of the crown in order to secure his income and exclude foreign merchants from participating.

The Pope, the bishopric Brixen and the family of Meckau all claiming the inheritance now demanded the immediate payback of these assets which would have resulted in insolvency for Jakob Fugger.

On the condition of assisting Pope Julius II in a war against the Republic of Venice the Habsburg monarch was recognized as being the rightful heir of Cardinal Melchior von Meckau.

The prince-electors consisted of the three archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier in addition to the King of Bohemia, the Elector of the Palatinate, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Duke of Saxony.

Fugger transferred the enormous sum of more than 850,000 guilders to the prince-electors which ultimately resulted in the unanimous election of Charles Holy Roman Emperor on 28 July 1519.

Out of this 850,000 guilders Fugger himself funded around 550,000 while another merchant house of Augsburg, the Welser family, contributed about 150,000 and three Italian bankers providing the rest.

Jakob Fugger intervened and reminded the Emperor that "It is known that your imperial majesty could not have claimed the Roman crown without my help,..." (German: „Es ist auch wissentlich und liegt am Tage, dass Eure Kaiserliche Majestät die römische Krone ohne mein Zutun nicht hätte erlangen können,…")[41] The added demand of repayment of all debts eventually led to all discussions of trade restrictions and limits to monopolies being dropped.

Albert also did not meet the requirements for taking over a diocese, since the 24-year-old had not yet reached the appropriate age and did not have a university degree and therefore needed a study leave for which the curia charged a high "processing fee".

It cost him an additional sum of ten thousand ducats,[49] and Albert employed Johann Tetzel for the actual preaching of the indulgence.

After the Diet of Augsburg in 1518, Luther had to answer for his theses in the Fugger House before Cardinal Thomas Cajetan, who had been commissioned by the Pope.

In 1517 Pope Leo X issued a papal bull granting Fugger and his heirs the patronage to the church and being able to choose the priest.