FUGGERS Bank of the. The foundation of this great banking house was laid in Augs burg, Bavaria, about the middle of the 15th century. (Rabelais, (Letters from Rome,' 1536). As its active career extended to the middle of the 17th century it embraced a period of some 200 years during which interval it was accounted the richest banking house in northern Europe, commercially the most ex tensive and politically the most important in its financial operations. The fortunes of the Fugger family grew originally out of the woolens trade, in which a great rivalry arose between the growers and merchants of wool in England, Germany and Spain, and the dyers and finishers of Italy. The political im portance of the Fuggers coincided with the reign of Charles V, whose youth, 1500-1516, was passed in Ghent (Flanders), where he was born. The expenditures of the young prince exceeding his income, he had recourse for assistance to the Fuggers of Augsburg, one of whom (probably Antony), resided and con ducted an agency of the house in Flanders. In 1548, after Charles had successively as cended the thrones of Spain and Germany, he reformed the government of Augsburg, mark ing the occasion by elevating the Fuggers to the dignity of senators and conferring the title of baron upon Raymond and Anthony. In the European wars which engaged the emperor, as well in the administration of his affairs in Spain and America, the Fuggers often shared his confidence and frequently responded to his demands for financial assistance. Among
the minor, though now most interesting of the projects which were undertaken in the earlier portion of the great emperor's career one which was financed by the Fuggers, was a sur vey by Flemish engineers of the Isthmus of Darien, with a view to the construction of a Panama Canal, about 1526 (Rev. Peter Hey lin's 'Microcosmos,' 1631, p. 788), a design whose grandeur had yet to await for its fulfil ment another 400 years. The bank of the Fug gers, with agencies in the principal cities of Europe, was a depository for the funds of numerous commercial houses and trading com panies, whose paper it discounted and whose plans it often promoted. It issued and cashed bills of exchange, bought coins and bullion, and advanced money upon bills of lading and con signments of merchandise; it even acquired the extraordinary privilege, in at least three places, of minting its own coins, some specimens of which are preserved in the great continental cabinets. Consult Hazlitt, Coinage; mints of Augsburg, Fugger and Weissenhorn.' For the history of other ancient European banks see BARCELONA, BANK OF; BYZANTIUM, BANK OF; GENOA, BANK OF; MEDICI, BANK OF TIME; TYRE, BANK OF; VENICS, BANK OF.