Men of Wealth (1944) - Ludwig von Mises Institute

34 MEN OF WEALTH
of Fugger was known throughout the world. He became almost
a legendary figure. Luther related, with a touch of awe despite
his hatred of Fugger's predatory class and his feud with Fugger
himself, how the Bishop of Brixen, one of Peutinger's literary
companions, had died in Rome, leaving a scarcely legible scrap
of paper, and how Pope Julius sent it to Fugger's agent in Rome
to be deciphered. The agent recognized it as evidence of a deposit
of several hundred thousand gulden which the good Bishop had
with the Fugger house. When the Pope asked how soon the money
could be sent, Fugger's factor replied: "At any hour." The Pope
turned to the French and English cardinals present and asked:
"Could your kings also deliver three tons of gold in an hour?"
When they said no, his Holiness replied: "But that is what a
citizen of Augsburg can do."
The astute Augsburg banker made more than his interest and
his "gifts" out of his sovereign. The function of banker—everready
and loyal banker and financial adviser—opened for him the
door to priceless privileges in Maximilian's ducal domain of the
Tirol, rich in natural resources—that same Tirol with its mines
which stimulated the patriotic yearning of the twentieth-century
German statesmen for Anschluss. He obtained from the debtridden
royal spendthrift those invaluable copper and silver monopolies
that became the chief source of his great fortune.
It would be unfair to Fugger, however, to say that his loyalty
to the Hapsburgs was the mere fruit of his predatory plans. He
was banker, merchant, industrialist, Catholic and German. What
were the percentages in which these ingredients fused in his imperious
nature, it is not, of course, possible to say. He felt a
strong tie to the Hapsburg house. His political philosophy, based
upon his commercial interests, drew him inevitably to the monarch
whose struggle against the principalities and estates advanced
the cause of order and stability in a stronger central government,
so essential to the rising merchant class. He gave to the Hapsburg
drive for strong central government that kind of zealous
support that the industrial magnate of Mark Hanna's day gave