There are only a few businessmen and men of
wealth known to Slovenian history that might be
unreservedly linked to Slovenehood in the modern
sense of the word. Business and wealth were, as a
rule, confined to members of higher classes who
were not of Slovenian descent but all too eagerly
referred to as "foreigners" (e.g. Baron Sigmund
Zois) or to businessmen of Slovenian origin who,
while gaining wealth and prestige, also started to
embrace the prevailing German culture and thus
soon lost their right to "Slovenehood" (e.g. the Oblak
family, later Barons of Wolkensperg).
Nevertheless, a few enterprising individuals in
the 19th century did come from simple Slovenian
rural communities and make their way to the very
top of the financial elite in the then Habsburg Monarchy...