Economy and Confession: The Business Practices of Augsburg Merchant Companies in the Reformation Era

The essay examines how the coming of the Protestant Reformation affected the business strategies and economic practices of south German merchant companies – especially those firms that rendered important commercial and financial services to the Roman Church. Apart from the Fugger Company, whose activities in Rome have been studied in detail by Aloys Schulte and Götz von Pölnitz, this theme is especially relevant for the Welser Company of Augsburg, which regularly handled business transactions with the curia as well as with individual clergymen. Based on newly discovered sources, the article develops a comparative perspective on the changing commercial and financial practices of the pre-eminent south German mercantile companies of the Reformation era regarding their relations with the church.