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WELSER , the name of a famous See also: family of See also: German merchants,
members of which held official positions in the city of Augsburg during the 13th century
.
The family first became important during the 15th century, when the See also: brothers Bartholomew and Lucas Welser carried on an extensive See also: trade with the See also: Levant and elsewhere, and had branches in the See also: principal trading centres of See also: south See also: Germany and See also: Italy, and also in See also: Antwerp, See also: London and See also: Lisbon
.
The business was continued by Antony (d
.
1518), a son of Lucas Welser, who was one of the first among the Germans to use the See also: sea route to the See also: East, which had been discovered by Vasco da Gama
.
The Welsers were also interested in See also: mining ventures; and, having amassed See also: great See also: wealth, Antony's son Bartholomew (1488—1561) lent large sums of See also: money to See also: Charles V., receiving in return several marks of the imperial favour
.
Bartholomew and his
See also: brother Antony, however, are chiefly known as the promoters of an expedition under See also: Ambrose Dalfinger (d
.
1532), which in 1528 seized the province of See also: Caracas in See also: Venezuela
.
With the consent of Charles V., this See also: district was governed and exploited by the Welsers; but trouble soon arose with the See also: Spanish See also: government, and the undertaking was abandoned in 1555
.
After Bartholomew's See also: death the business was carried on by three of his sons and two of his nephews; but the See also: firm became bankrupt in 1614
.
Bartholomew's niece Philippine
(1527-1580), the daughter of his brother See also: Francis (1497-1572), married the Archduke See also: Ferdinand, son of the emperor
Ferdinand I
.
Perhaps the most famous member of the Welser family was
Antony's
See also: grandson, See also: Marcus (1558—1614)
.
Educated in Italy, Marcus became burgomaster of Augsburg, but was more distinguished for his scholarship and his writings
.
The most important of his many See also: works is his Rerum Boicarum libri quinque, dealing with the early See also: history of the Bavarians, which was translated into German by the author's brother See also: Paul (d
.
162o)
.
His works, Marci Velseri See also: opera historica et philologica, were collected and published with a biography of Marcus by C
.
See also: Arnold (See also: Nuremberg, 1682)
.
The Augsburg branch of Welsers became See also: extinct in 1797, and a branch which settled at Nuremberg in 1878; but the See also: Ulm branch of the family is still flourishing
.
See K
.
Habler, Die iiberseeischen Unternehmungen der Welser (See also: Leipzig, 1903) ; W
.
Boheim, Philippine Welser (Berlin, 1894); and A
.
Kleinschmidt, Augsburg, Nurnberg and ihre Handelsfursten (See also: Cassel, 1881)
.
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