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...