The House of Fugger was a German banking and merchant family from Augsburg that rose to prominence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, coming to control much of the European economy of its era and rivaling, then surpassing, the influence of the Medici family. Its most celebrated member, Jakob Fugger, called the Rich (1459-1525), built his fortune through banking, mining, and merchant trade in copper, spices, and indulgences, was elevated to nobility in 1511, and is regarded by some estimates as one of the wealthiest individuals in history, with a net worth equivalent to roughly two percent of the entire economic output of Europe at the time. The family, whose lands centered on the Danube and Iller rivers in what is now Bavaria and Wurttemberg, ruled the County of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn from 1507 to 1806 and dissolved their banking company in 1657, after which they remained prominent as landowners.
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