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WELSER

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 516 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WELSER , the name of a famous See also:

family of See also:German merchants, members of which held See also:official positions in the See also:city of See also:Augsburg during the 13th See also:century. The family first became important during the 15th century, when the See also:brothers See also:Bartholomew and See also: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) See also: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 See also: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 See also:Archduke See also:Ferdinand, son of the See also: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 See also: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 See also:biography of Marcus by C. See also:Arnold (See also:Nuremberg, 1682). The Augsburg See also: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, See also:Die iiberseeischen Unternehmungen der Welser (See also:Leipzig, 1903) ; W. Boheim, Philippine Welser (See also:Berlin, 1894); and A. Kleinschmidt, Augsburg, Nurnberg and ihre Handelsfursten (See also:Cassel, 1881).

End of Article: WELSER

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