Those sneaky Fuggers.

On the 6th of March 1459, in the German city of Augsburg, one of the richest men to have ever lived took his first breath.

Born the tenth of eleven children, Jakob Fugger was the child of moderately wealthy merchants. But even though he came into the world with something of a financial head start, almost nobody could have envisioned the spectacularly lofty heights he would later attain.

By the age of fourteen, he was already a trusted member of his family’s business, serving as their merchant house’s representative in Venice. Later in his early twenties, Fugger would lay the foundation for his future wealth in the mining industry, initially by providing loans to silver miners in Salzburg who were in dire need of new operating capital.

It was in this business of providing credit where Fugger would accumulate one of the largest fortunes in human history, as well as an astronomical level of power undreamt of by most men.

By the time he turned thirty, some of Europe’s most powerful people were in Fugger’s pocket. His family at one point provided more than half the entire budget of the Austrian state of Tyrol, which gave Jakob enormous power to influence politics in the region. Not to mention the fact that Tyrol’s hefty loan repayments to the Fuggers sometimes equalled the entire supply of gold and silver mined in the region.

Eventually, a large swathe of Europe’s ruling class owed Fugger money, and by association, favours. Among those indebted to him included Austria’s Archduke Sigismund, the Pope and the Vatican as a whole, and even Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III—in short, Jakob’s obscene wealth allowed him to purchase the power of kings, emperors, and religious leaders.

He could hire armies to start or end wars on his own, and bankroll politicians he wanted to succeed. But most importantly, he was able to shape the laws of Europe to benefit the way that he thought capitalism should be run, which for Fugger usually meant he could pay to create laws that meant the government would leave his businesses alone.

This is possibly the first time you’ve heard of Jakob Fugger. But despite this, he was a more important figure in history than you may know. According to records, he was likely the wealthiest non-royal to have ever walked the Earth, with modern estimates of his net worth usually falling somewhere between the $400-$500 billion mark in today’s money. This means Fugger was worth several times more than today’s billionaires like Gates, Musk, or Bezos at their height.

Jakob Fugger’s wealth allowed him to influence politics, government, and the world. Something that today, we’ve come to know as Public-Private Partnership.

Public-Private Partnership (or PPP) is something you’ve likely heard of before. More often than not it’s discussed as “Stakeholder Capitalism”, which is a term popularised by Herr Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum, and has since been taken up by investment firms like Blackrock, and embraced by world leaders like Trudeau and Ardern.

At face value, the idea of PPP doesn’t seem like a bad one. It’s the belief that the world’s most powerful companies should be more responsible for taking care of our planet and its inhabitants, and should be rewarded or penalised depending on how well they work within new societal ideals of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG). It’s most commonly perceived as our governments finally making the most profitable entities on Earth accountable for their actions, with the end result being a fairer and more equitable world for all of us.

Unfortunately, I believe the reality is quite the opposite.

Most of these new ESG and PPP shenanigans being adopted by our governments usually first arise as ideas pushed by the WEF, which are discussed and popularised at its annual meeting at Davos. And who pays for the Forum’s meetings and funds its yearly activities? Well of course, that’s the largest and most profitable companies on the planet, who are the only entities with enough cash to afford the WEF’s outrageous membership fees.

Obviously, any club like the WEF exists to benefit its paying members, not those of us who can’t afford to be an insider. Or in the words of the late George Carlin, “it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it!”

Just like Fugger did, I’m certain the WEF’s member companies are using their wealth and influence to shape the laws of our world to benefit them, instead of us.

It’s not difficult to see how they’ll achieve this. Via stakeholder capitalism and the implementation of new ESG laws like carbon credits and social equity regulations, small businesses will have to spend a load of cash in order to remain compliant. Over time as more of these regulations come into force, smaller businesses and companies will find it more difficult to maintain this compliance, inevitably leaving many with no other option than to shut down operations—just like we’re already seeing with new environmental laws forcing thousands of Dutch farmers to cease business.

But who will be able to consistently afford to maintain compliance? That will of course be the largest and most cash-rich companies—like the WEF’s members who are helping to write these rules in the first place. And as they wipe out their smaller competitors, they’ll increase their market share, and further monopolise their industries.

For many people, this is a hard pill to swallow considering this is all being carried out under the illusion of doing good things for our planet, while creating a more equitable and inclusive society. Which on the face of I have no problem with. However, I also know that multinational juggernauts never do anything for those altruistic reasons; instead, it’s always about profit, profit, profit.

Obviously, the easiest way to stop this from happening is to simply take money from WEF member companies—which include Apple, Amazon, and Coca-Cola. If their revenuesdrop, they’ll have less power to manipulate the system. But I challenge you to attempt convincing your friends to give up their iPhone or Macbook, and you’ll see the impossibility of draining their coffers in this way.

Instead, if you’re at all worried about modern-day Fuggers shaping our world to benefit themselves, and gradually removing your ability to access equal business opportunity, you’ll have to take radical control of your own personal situation. In other words, there’s never been a better time to make yourself as immune as possible from the machinations of the über-powerful.

Make 2023 the year you finally decide to detach yourself from living within the bounds of just a single nation, and take steps to acquire a second (or maybe third) citizenship or residency in a country that’s more open and free. Because while Europe and the West may be going down an obvious path of big government and increased regulation, the rest of the world isn’t so quickly following this trend.

Or spend this year focusing on increasing your independent income, or making smart investments that will grow your own personal wealth to safeguard your quality of life for the future. Or take steps to reorganise your business by offshoring it in a nation like Georgia, to lower your tax liability while increasing freedom of business opportunity.

Maybe it’s time to do what I do at the start of any new year: write two or three high-level goals that will increase my level of overall life freedom. For me this year it’s to acquire my fourth passport, purchase productive farmland in Argentina, and triple my investments in precious metals and art. Sure, these aren’t goals that may be attainable to you just yet, however by starting with the things that are achievable for you over the next year, you may be writing similar goals down in a few years’ time.

Whatever you do, just do something.

This year, take the biggest steps you ever have to become a freer and more independent human. Then it doesn’t matter what those Fuggers do, you’ll always be able to escape what many others won’t.

Leon Hill.
Co-founder, Abundantia.

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