YMMV / Flying Dutch

• Genius Bonus: The House of Fugger, the original bank which held Vanderdecker's life insurance policy, sounds like a joke (in fact they're referred to as "those Fuggers" on more than one occasion). But the Fuggers actually existed and were an enormously successful and powerful banking family, starting in mid-15th century Germany. By the time of his death in 1525, the bank's founder, Jakob Fugger, was worth the equivalent of $400 billion, and the bank controlled 2 percent of the GDP of all Europe, as well as financing multiple Imperial dynasties throughout the continent.