![Kaspar Stockalper dedicated his life to making money. He believed that this was his divine mission. Illustration by Marco Heer](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Illu-Teil-3-neu-300x225.jpg)
Making money till the end
Kaspar Stockalper built up a conglomerate in Valais that shrewdly exploited the crises of the 17th century. To him, amassing wealth was a religious mission and a ticket to eternal salvation. But that didn't save him from a political conspiracy through which his rivals brought about his downfall.
![Sign of power: the Stockalper Tower in Gondo on a print dated 1821.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Stockalperturm-Grafik-300x183.jpg)
![The Valaisan earned a fortune through mercenaries – here, soldiers in French service.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/fremde-dienste-300x212.jpg)
![Sketch of the Stockalper Palace by Roland Anheisser, Bern 1906–1910.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/stockalper-schloss-1-300x148.jpg)
![God’s favourite shall take the profits... This motto is written in Kaspar Stockalper’s account books.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Rechnungsbuch-Stockalper-1-192x300.jpg)
![Stockalper can still be seen in Brig today – in the mayor’s office.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/stockalper-nahe-246x300.jpg)
![Kaspar Stockalper’s power began in Simplon and ended there when he travelled via the pass to exile in Domodossola. Print from the early 19th century showing the pass road.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/simplonpass-300x202.jpg)
![Kaspar Stockalper resided in the Palazzo Silva in Domodossola after he fled.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/palazzo-domodossola-300x178.jpg)
The King of Brig
In a three-part series, historian and author Helmut Stalder charts the rise and fall of Kaspar Stockalper, the “King of Brig”:
Part 1: The geopolitician from Brig
Part 2: Neutrality as a business model
Part 3: Making money till the end