which Elizabeth protested.

While the North of Germany was suffering from its failure to adapt
itself to new conditions, a power was rising in the South capable of
levying tribute not only from the whole Empire but from the habitable
earth. Among the merchant princes who, in Augsburg, in Nuremberg, in
Strassburg, placed on their own brows the golden crown of riches, the
Fuggers were both typical and supreme. James Fugger "the Rich,"
[Sidenote: James Fugger, 1459-1525] springing from a family already
opulent, was one of those geniuses of finance that turn everything
touched into gold. He carried on a large banking business, he loaned
money to emperors and princes, he bought up mines and fitted out
fleets, he re-organized great industries, he speculated in politics and
religion. For the princes of the empire he farmed taxes; for the pope
he sold indulgences at a 33 1/3 per cent. commission, and collected
annates and other dues. In Hungary, in Spain, in Italy, in the New
World, his agents were delving for money and skilfully diverting it
into his coffers. He was also a pillar of the church and a
philanthropist, founding a library at Augsburg and building model
tenements for poor workers. He became the incarnation of a new Great
Power, that of international finance. A contemporary chronicler says:
"emperors, kings, princes and governors have sent ambassage unto him;
the pope hath greeted him as his beloved son and hath embraced him;
cardinals have risen before him. . . . He hath become the glory {528}
of the whole German land." His sons, Raymond, Anthony and Jerome, were
raised by Charles V to the rank and privileges of counts, bannerets and
barons.

Throughout the century corporations became less and less family
partnerships and more and more impersonal or "soulless." They were
semi-public, semi-private affairs, resting on special charters and
actively promoted, not only in Germany but in England and other
countries, by the emperor, king, or territorial prince. On the other
hand the capital was largely subscribed by private business men and the
direction of the companies' affairs was left in their hands. Liability
was unlimited.

[Sidenote: Monopolies]

In their methods many of the sixteenth century corporations were
surprisingly "modern." Monopolies, corners, trusts and agreements to
keep up prices flourished, notwithstanding constant legislation against
them, as that against secret schedules of prices