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.
Spanish National Research Council, Spain
Spanish National Research Council, Spain
Spanish National Research Council, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0002-7042-8577
University of Milan, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-8146-6181
Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-6659-2323
Chapter Title
The decline of the Fugger in the seventeenth century. Preliminary research findings of the great German financial house
Authors
Ángel Alloza Aparicio, Francisco Fernández Izquierdo, Elena García Guerra, Giuseppe De Luca, Isabella Cecchini
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.12
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Gestione del rischio, insolvenza e bancarotta nel mondo premoderno (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Risk management, insolvency, and bankruptcy in the pre-modern world (13th-18th centuries)
Editors
Angela Orlandi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
568
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0962-5
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0963-2
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0964-9
Series Title
Datini Studies in Economic History
Series ISSN
2975-1241
Series E-ISSN
2975-1195