Meet Jakob Fugger “the Rich,” born 1459 in Augsburg, Germany. Most merchants focused on textiles and spices. Fugger saw bigger opportunities: banking and mining. He lent massive sums to kings and emperors, taking mining rights as collateral. Those who couldn’t pay? He kept the mines. He controlled the raw materials that fueled European armies and economies. Fugger founded joint-stock mining companies in Hungary and Tyrol. Soon, he controlled over 50% of Europe’s copper output; the backbone of co