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THE FUGGERS OF AUGSBURG

HOT in Venice and Florence alone were there clever men who became powerful and rich through commerce. Other peoples in the north were treading the same intricate paths to fame and fortune, and it is largely owing to the wonderful energy and sagacity of several families of merchants living in Augsburg that this city became one of the great trading centres north of Venice-perhaps indeed the greatest. Of these families one stands out most conspicuously, and we know of no record in the history of Commerce more fascinating and more inspiring than that of the great Fugger family, to whom we shall give this chapter.

The house of Fugger ranks even to-day with the proudest families of Germany, yet the Fuggers are not, like so many scions of the German aristocracy, members of an old line ennobled almost before history began. It was rather the nobility of civil activity, aided by fortune and seconded by imperial favour, that won them the princely coronet in 1803.

Their oldest known ancestor was by no means of the inner circle of the patrician families of Augsburg, for we read that at Grabent, a village about a mile and a half to the north-west of Lager Lechfeld, a certain Hans Fugger and his wife Anna of the Meisners of Kirchheim pursued, in addition to his husbandry, the calling of weaver and dyer. The village, however, became too small for the ambitions of his son and successor, and one fine September day in 1367 Hans the

younger left his little roadside home for a larger field of activity. In Augsburg he continued the trade of weaver, and through his business ability and manly open character won for himself a position among the better families and a place of honour in his guild. He married the daughter of the burgomaster, and thus gained the freedom of the city. His brother Ulrich joined him in 1377. His business increased; the number of looms and apprentices multiplied; and, determining to found a business for the direct sale of his wares, he shocked and astonished the neighbours by opening a shop in his own. house.

The excellence of his goods speedily became recognized throughout the surrounding districts, and his enterprise both in the wholesale and retail trade was crowned with success. Large orders from Ulm, Nuremberg, and other towns came in so rapidly that Fugger's chief difficulty was to weave enough to supply his customers. In this way the foundations of the family were laid in the fourteenth century, with quality for building material and industry as a sure cement. When Hans Fugger died in 1409 he left, what was no small fortune for those times, a sum of 3000 florins.

Hans Fugger's sons were Andrew and Jacob. Andrew, the elder, was richer and more respected than Jacob, but possessed of a somewhat imperious disposition. He carried on with all the fiery energy of his nature the business schemes of his father, and entrusting the looms to the care of his brother Jacob, devoted himself exclusively to the commerce in cloth.

The name of Fugger bore so excellent a reputation among the merchants in the more important towns of Germany that the doors of every counting-house were opened wide to his ambitious projects. The shrewdness with which he availed himself of every opportunity for progress, the energy with which he steered straight for the goal, indifferent to obstacles and knowing no such word as failure, contributed greatly to the increase of his

business, the enhancement of his reputation, and to the wealth of this, the third generation of the house of Fugger. He won a position in society, and was made happy by seeing his son Jacob receive from the Emperor Frederick III. in 1452, "for himself, his brothers, and his descendants forever," the first family coat of arms of a roe gules on a field azure. But, unfortunately, his haughtiness and overbearing manner marred what might otherwise have been a great character. He succeeded in his schemes and undertakings, but he estranged his friends and, finally, his brother Jacob.

When Andrew Fugger died he left a great business which was undertaken by his sons, Luke, Jacob, Matthew and Hans. But it is difficult to instil the love of work into those who know they will inherit great wealth. Luxury and absence of necessity robbed Andrew's sons of all incentive, and business is a mistress who overlooks no neglect and must be constantly courted. Though Andrew had been haughty and purseproud he had never ceased to love the great game of business. Every day saw him in his office or among his bales of merchandise. His love of enjoyment and magnificence did not deprive him of the result of his early lessons in thrift. His sons failed to maintain the standards and the traditions of their father and grandfather. They lost the family virility, and just as the nation which grows rich and gives itself up to pleasures and enjoyment becomes less virile, less capable, less respected or feared, and finally drops into insignificance, so the family almost always falls which counts work or effort other than in the chase for sport, or pleasure, as something to be shunned. It falls too in a very much shorter space of time than does the nation. For several years after their father's death the Fuggers' business increased by its own impetus, but at length began inevitably to show the lack of a master hand. At the death of the last brother in 1494 his debts exceeded his assets by an enormous amount. This branch of the family grew less and less, until many of

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