FUGGER, FAMILY. - German merchants and bankers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, established in Augusta in the second half of the fourteenth century. Their most eminent representative was GIACOMO II, known as the RICCO (1459-1525), who abandoned the trade in spices, wool, and silks, hitherto traditional in the family, in order to devote himself to more profitable activities, above all banking operations. Having entered into business relations with Emperor Massimiliano, Giacomo F. repeatedly provided him with loans, obtaining in return the exploitation of the very rich copper and silver mines of the Tyrol. The election of Carlo V as emperor (1519) was chiefly due to F., who on that occasion advanced more than half a million florins.
Under the pontificate of Alessandro VI, the F. also became bankers to the Holy See, and were entrusted with the collection of the servitia and, under Leone X, with the collection of contributions for indulgences, especially in central and eastern Europe. Upon the death of Giacomo III Ricco, his nephew ANTONIO (d. 1560) became head of the firm, under whose direction its business attained the height of prosperity. Subsequently, during the so-called third generation of the F., the period of decline began, caused largely by unsuccessful business dealings concluded with the king of Spain. The F. finally went bankrupt by the first half of the seventeenth century.