The decline of the Fugger in the seventeenth century : Preliminary research findings of the great German financial house

This paper presents preliminary findings on the decline of the Fugger banking house in seventeenth-century Spain, emphasizing its unique role as financier, administrator, and de facto governor within the Habsburg monarchy. Unlike other crown financiers, the Fugger house managed vast territories in Castile, notably the mesas maestrales of the castilian military orders, and operated the Almadén mercury mines, crucial for American silver extraction. Drawing on newly collected and largely unexplored archival materials from Simancas, Madrid, and other repositories, the essay traces the financial entanglements of the Fugger house, including its complex network of asientos, mining operations, and, crucially, the capture of private deposits from a wide spectrum of Castilian society.