Bartholomeus V. Welser

V. Bartholomew Welser the Elder ( born June 25, 1484 Memmingen, † March 28, 1561 in Amberg in the Lower Allgäu ) was an Augsburg patrician and wholesale merchant.

He was the son Anton I. Welser, who at that time as a son of Hans the Younger Vöhlin worked in the Memminger Vöhlin Society was born.

He was from 1519 to 1551 head of the Augsburg Welser -Gesellschaft, one of the largest commercial, banking, shipping and mining companies of the 16th century. In 1528, he graduated with the Spanish crown from a Asiento with which the Welser obtained the governorship of the Spanish overseas province of Venezuela for a period of almost thirty years. As a banker, Emperor Charles V and the French king Francis I. he had a decisive influence on the powers of his time.