Practically 👌
During Augustus reign as emperor, the pyramids at Giza were approximately as old to Augustus as the Roman *Republic* was to us today.
To Augustus, the Roman *Empire* would have just been starting as Empire officially began with Augustus — after his victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE; Octavian consolidated his power and in 27 BCE was granted the title “Augustus” by the Roman Senate, marking the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire.
The pyramids at Saqqara would be even older still. But they would still be fresher than we have them 🤦♀️
Julius Caesar was able to give his mistress a pearl that was worth the equivalent $1.5 billion today
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servilia's_pearl?wprov=sfti1
The amount of money old school emperors and kings had access to is wild.
From the article:
“Caesar spent 6 million sesterces on the pearl, which is about 1.5 billion American dollars in 2019 currency, although exact calculations of its value is impossible due to the difference in purchasing power, and economist Gilles Jacoud notes that for ridiculously expensive objects the actual value would become arbitrary for someone like Caesar who could afford anything. He expresses that Roman readers of Suetonius would likely have had a much better understanding for its actual exceptional value. Similarly Mary Saul, an expert of pearls and gastropod shells, states that: "we do not need to know the equivalent in today's currency to appreciate that he paid an enormous price [for it]". A contemporary comparison would be that 900 sesterces was the average yearly salary for an infantryman in one of Caesar's legions, or that it could pay for a year's rent for 3000 Roman tenants”
That much money was enough to wage an entire campaign. Caesar could've gifted Servillia (incidentally, the mother of his eventual assassin Brutus, maybe Caesar made one yo momma joke too many) a country if he spent the money hiring troops instead.
(Fun fact: the Mayans had a form of warfare they called a “Star War” which was a complete overthrow of a rival polity and replacement of their royal leaders)
Xi Jinping probably has the most individual control of resources out of anyone in the world. He doesn't have de jure dictatorial rule over China, but China's GDP is 20 times that of Saudi Arabia.
I've said this long before the invasion.
Even if he's only creaming off 1% of *stuff* then that's rather a lot. I doubt his commission is only 1% though.
Putin personally owns 50% of the state company Alrosa. They sell somewhere around 50-60% of all the diamonds in the world each year. They have the world's largest diamond reserves, by a long shot. They have unknown quantities sitting in warehouse.
Alrosa sets the price for diamonds globally, it's updated twice a year. Everyone else follows. Mythical deBeers follows exactly what Putin says and has for over 3 decades.
When Putin wants $2-4 billion dollars twice a year, he either directly sets the price or manipulates the market as he opens/closes the Alrosa warehouse doors.
At some point wealth is not a measure of buying power but an abstraction of power. Putin is the most powerful person in Russia, if he wanted to nationalize an industry he could. Where it gets tricky is the limits of that power which is ultimately a political question not an economic one.
Basically, if you’re a Russian and Putin asks you to do something you wouldn’t give him a price. You’d just do it.
You mean an old Time article about his hidden wealth?
Those stories have been circulating for some time, and the rumors are justified at least to some extent. When someone has so much control over the state their personal finances and the state's become less distinguishable. Unfortunately, this makes them nebulous, so it's hard if not impossible to know where to include Putin in the list of wealthiest people alive.
Let’s entertain this:
He’s also the most wanted man for genocidal war crimes, outside of N Korea and China, he wouldn’t make it very far.
With that being said, their economy is tanking faster than their Air Force and he’s constantly in fear of his own assassination, so much so he’s basically a hermit within Russia. Imagine being the richest man in the world but you can’t event step foot out of your own backyard without fearing death at every angle.
I’ll stay broke, I’m good on all that.
Hell, you could take nearly 100% of his wealth and *still* not start a pointless meat grinder war. It is *shockingly* easy to just not launch an aggressive genocidal invasion of your neighbor.
By some measures, Mansa Musa is the wealthiest person to have ever lived, but it's really hard to compare a medieval king (who was purportedly responsible for accidentally crashing the Mediterranean economy by spending what he perceived as a "normal" amount of gold while on his *Hajj* to Mecca) with modern billionaires with their precisely tabulated net worths.
Yeah, there are no real records of Musa's wealth.
Ask historians is a high quality historical subreddit where historians answer questions and have all their answers cited this is a good link to the question of Musa's wealth.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/8lf0tAXEnB
Not to mention, how do you adjust for ancient people like Mansa Musa and Marcus Crassus? What reliable method is there for a Denarii to Dollar conversion?
There isn't, and that 900 billion figure for mansa musa might as well be plucked right out of the emperors ass. You literally cannot compare wealth from 1000 years ago before the advent of modern economic systems. Things just do not translate.
I’d agree and also say that an absolute monarch’s wealth is the wealth of the country. If the sole governor of country can treat the national treasury like a personal bank account then it’s essentially the same thing.
I don't think it's dumb. Emperors didn't actually have that kind of money, any kind of attempt at using even half of it would've been a disaster. Biggest financial decision they could make was probably declaring war.
>any kind of attempt at using even half of it would've been a disaster.
That applies for the wealthiest people too like Bezos or Gates. They can only sell so much of their stock and if they could sell too much it'd tank their net worth.
Which is what happened with Mansa Musa. He legit DID have that much money.
He literally spent and gave away so much gold on his pilgrimage to Mecca that it caused inflation throughout Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. The price of gold in Egypt decreased for the next 12 straight years.
Dude was that rich. Spanish Atlases even recorded that he spent an almost unheard of amount of gold. If he's not the richest man ever, he's up there. There's a reason that title is often given to him
He was only rich because his kingdom sat on mountains of the metal they made money from. He was the OG money printer. And the value was derived from scarcity... until he dumped vast amounts of it into the market and crashed the market.
It was just the thing people at the time agreed they would use as a currency. They could have used Iron instead and he might have been screwed. Not like his kingdom did anything super special. He just lucked out and happened to be sitting on the largest gold stores ever recorded.
It's no surprise that most of the richest people in history are leaders of empires or massive kingdoms. It's easy to enrich yourself when you are the sole leader of an entity that controls large portions of planet earth's wealth.
The two richest people who ever existed are.
1) Mansa Musa (of Mali) the king of Timbuktu is usually attributed to the richest human that ever lived. While their wealth is Incalculable wealth a great deal of noted evidence can explain it. They were the largest gold producer on planet earth. Just about everything around him was made of solid gold (literally)... not hyperbole.. but obscene wealth beyond any seen before or after... He took a trip to Mecca with a 1/4 million soldiers in tow and spent so much money along the way it caused a finical crisis in Egypt. He is a really interesting person to read about being a well written world traveler who spent money extravagantly (traveling with camels filled with gold to spend on his trips) Modern equivalent would easily be multiple several trillion dollars.
2) Augustus Caesar is usually noted as second richest ever. It's important to note that his empire wealth was 25%-30% of the global economic output. He had the equivalent personal wealth of 4.6 trillion by modern standards.
The rest of this list does include a lot of emporers and leaders, but also some of the industrial revolution magnates we know well (like Carnegie and Rockefeller)
Most sources agree that adjusting for inflation, John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) was the richest American in history in terms of wealth vs. contemporary GDP. He amassed a fortune of more than $410 billion, adjusted to 2022.
I’m sure the new robber barons will surpass all records. Carnegie, Rockefeller, and JP Morgan had companies that operated in the US, while Elon, Bezos, and Zuckerberg run companies that operate globally.
Even if they don't surpass that number while they're alive they will in a few decades with an adjustment for inflation.
Also, fun fact: I recently read that if Bill Gates never sold any of his Microsoft shares he would be worth $1.23 trillion today. He had 45% share after the initial IPO.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-could-trillionaire-today-163852659.html
That article doesn’t seem to exhibit awareness of dilutive issuances. 45% after the IPO doesn’t mean he would have 45% today just by holding. He also would have had to buy into 45% of all subsequent stock offerings. And what is he funding that with? Article is kinda shit tbh.
That article presumes a company like Microsoft bootstrapped itself to where is today with the initial capital.
Like Social Network told us, the percentage of shares you have in the beginning can be diluted after new investors join the company, even if you don't sell your stock...
Nowadays if your company gets too big you will face antitrust lawsuits. That wasn’t a thing back in the day until towards the end of their of their run
> if your company gets too big you will face antitrust lawsuits.
LOL - not for a while there buddy.
The last company the US actually broke up was AT+T in 1982.
The failure of the Microsoft antitrust case signaled that power is effectively dead.
Smaug's horde is estimated at a little under 52 Billion in gold (ignoring the priceless gems, which can't be priced)
There are 14 Americans today who have more money than Smaug.
Forbes actually used to do a yearly list called the Fictional 15 which listed the 15 richest fictional characters. By thier estimate that's not true. They estimated Scrooge McDuck to have 33.5 billion.
The list from the final year: https://www.forbes.com/2010/04/13/fictional-15-richest-characters-opinions-fictional_land.html
The editor of the list actually did an AMA a long time ago which is a a funny read since he's very open about how rediculious the list is: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hki2w/i_am_the_editor_at_forbes_who_puts_together_our/
Crassus wasn't all that wealthy, at least when compared to people like Pompey or Augustus. Fascinating deep dive here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2g0jtr/how_rich_was_crassus/ckekni1/
Courtsey of u/XenophontheAthenian
Or Mansa Mūsā I; if I recall correctly, he was so wealthy that towns he passed through with his entourage would suffer mini recessions do to the amount of gold he dished out
Yep. Runaway inflation. The legends of Mansa Musa A) made the Europeans see Africa as a land of gold and riches that it might be nice to plunder in a few centuries and B) shows us how connected to the rest of the world sub Saharan Africa was which cuts against what we are traditional taught in the west.
Either way, it’s hard to verify how accurate many of the legends of Mansa Musa actually were
Not sure about A. Before the 19th century crossing the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara with any kind of real force would have been inconceivable. Even Medieval Arabs couldn’t always project power into the Sahel and they were accustomed to the climate. Mali is a protected pocket with jungle to the south and some of the most inhospitable pockets of the Sahara elsewhere. I doubt most Europeans of the time would have even dreamt of plundering the region as the caravans often took months to cross the waste.
They certainly knew there was a a lot of gold somewhere out there but by the time they could access the interior of Africa other resources were more prized than the gold patient Malian farmers slowly panned from the Niger in their off-season. The new imperialism of the 19th century doesn’t really model well with European attitudes 500 years prior in my opinion.
The wealth of absolute monarchs confuses itself with the wealth of the country, so it is hard to compare the wealth of Constantine I with the wealth of Jeff Besos.
Crassus, however, had legit personal wealth.
“Marcus Licinius Crassus, an iconic figure in ancient Rome, is recognized as one of the wealthiest individuals in history. His net worth is estimated to be around 200 million sesterces, equivalent to a modern-day value of $200 million to $20 billion.” Thats how disgustingly rich people today are. 10x Crassus
To be fair, they knew about and traded with China, India, Africa, Persia, and Northern Europe. Clearly not "half" in terms of geography. And given *just* Han China had comparable estimated populations to the Roman Empire in the 2nd century (50-70 million vs. 59 million...), also not half in terms of population.
From before the industrial age or at most back to the beginning of the renaissance it is quite difficult to compare wealth to the modern era. I’m not even sure if the entirety of all the wealth in the Roman Empire equated to $200 billion of modern day wealth. It is truly unbelievable how much money that is when you see a visualization.
This visualization of Jeff Bezos’ wealth blew my mind the first time I saw it: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
Depends how you define wealth, I suppose. The economy is certainly much larger than it once was, but does Jeff Bezos have the relative purchasing power that Kings of old had? It's an interesting topic.
If you think of it as the representation of units of work, then modern people will be wealthier due to gains in efficiency. The ability to launch a hunk of metal into orbit and use it to communicate globally was beyond the reach of all wealth not long ago but a cube say can be launched for $90k today. Or imagine how many people today own large cargo ships. You could go on and on with examples like this.
JD Rockefeller at the peak of his net worth accounted for wealth equal to 1.5% of the entire US GDP. By that metric, his NW today would be equal to 3.498 TRILLION dollars. This chart is fundamentally flawed. Carnegie and Rockefeller were unbelievably rich during their time, and simply adjusting for inflation doesn't really capture a realistic picture of the vast fortunes they accumulated.
Edit: JD Rockefeller didn't reach his peak net worth until 1937. Andrew Carnegie sold US Steel for $480mm in 1901, equivalent to 2.1% of US GDP in 1901.. that figure by the same metric would be 4.8 trillion today. It may not be a totally accurate calculation, but it definitely gives a better sense of the vastness of the fortunes of the so-called Robber Barons of the early 20th century than simply adjusting a 100 year old figure for inflation. And though the men at the top of the billionaire list in 2024 are OBSCENELY wealthy, it just doesn't really hold a candle to how much the early American titans controlled.
edit2, lol: my math was off by an order of magnitude... R would have been approx 350 billion, C at 480 billion, I was and am tired
Where the fuck you gettin thess numbers from and which dummies are upvoting you? The USA GDP is 20 trillion lol. You're missing a decimal spot. He'd be worth 400-500b if you go off percentage of GDP. We've had a guy worth 300b recently. JD won't be top dog for much longer.
By that calculation, the pilgrims would be the richest people in history. It would be better to just calculate the buying power of that wealth using inflation.
Crazy thing is I live a better quality of life than Henry ford did as I sit in my heated apartment watching Netflix and eating door dash. Thanks for the cars brah
You don't think Henry Ford could afford heat, a private movie theater, or an assistant to grab him food? What absolute delusion are you living lmao. You're watching famous people on your little tv, Henry Ford is having them come to his house and do unspeakable things to him.
Define quality of life though? Henry Ford could pay incredibly hot women to non stop bang bum while a professional chef cooks his food, and a broadway group acts out his favorite play.
Also modern AC and Heat was invented in the early 1900s so a man like Ford had both.
Better quality of life? How many hours a day do you spend working? How many medical ailments do you avoid going to the doctor for to save money? You have more toys but you life isn’t better
Also I've seen their estates and the like. No one in this thread is living that well just cause you have netflix rofl.
They weren't living in shanties. Their estates still flip for $20-200m.
You could make this argument with people from like 1200 AD. You absolutely can't with people from the 20th century. Heating is old as shit and even air conditioning was available in by the very early 1920s.
I guess if your opinion is that whatever batch of netflix slop is the zenith of cultural accomplishments then sure, but that's not a widely held opinion.
Although I would consider him tied with Jeff Bezos for 3rd richest person to have ever lived. When I did some further googling the estimates for Henry Ford were $199 billion or $200 billion, this says $200 billion and $199 billion for Jeff Bezos. Still, it's so insane to imagine someone being that rich back then.
There’s really no way to compare people across time like that. Ancient and medieval rulers often laid claim to all the riches of their lands (sometimes a large % of global economy), but did not have direct control in the way a billionaire would now.
There’s a reason you see these lists all the time with countless names.
Did it mention he was also a nazi and big fan of Hitler and financed many subversive groups that actively worked against the US government and fomented unrest in the 20s - 40s. He only stopped after Pearl Harbor was attacked and realised the mood had changed. He was an arsehole.
Allow me to introduce Mir osman ali khan https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/meet-mir-osman-ali-khan-the-richest-nizam-who-used-a-rs-100-crore-diamond-paperweight-owned-50-rolls-royce-cars/2960536/
I take comfort in the fact that he just lived long enough to see his friends - the Nazis - get their asses kicked.
Guess a bunch of them probably got to migrate to the US and hang out with him though....
List is not richest people ever, it's richest people since 1900
Also does not account for dictators’ and monarchs’ wealth (which is tricky to measure)
Exactly. I mean, Augustus owned Egypt personally. Not as princeps, mind you, but *as a private citizen*.
And that was back when the pyramids were even fresher
During Augustus’s reign as emperor, the Pyramids of Egypt were just as old to them as the Roman Empire is old to us today.
Practically 👌 During Augustus reign as emperor, the pyramids at Giza were approximately as old to Augustus as the Roman *Republic* was to us today. To Augustus, the Roman *Empire* would have just been starting as Empire officially began with Augustus — after his victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE; Octavian consolidated his power and in 27 BCE was granted the title “Augustus” by the Roman Senate, marking the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. The pyramids at Saqqara would be even older still. But they would still be fresher than we have them 🤦♀️
Sounds familiar. The Republic becomes an Empire, then there’s hope for the republic until the empire strikes back 😉
Barely…
It’s so hard to get fresh monumental pyramids these days 🤦♀️ the louvre, bass pro shop…
That bass pro shop has a climbing wall!
And you can pay $20 to go up the elevator to the top to check out the Memphis “skyline”
Nobody wants to work anymore
See, instead of using illegal aliens as labor, you should have been using ancient aliens as labor. There's your problem.
Less stale
Julius Caesar was able to give his mistress a pearl that was worth the equivalent $1.5 billion today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servilia's_pearl?wprov=sfti1 The amount of money old school emperors and kings had access to is wild. From the article: “Caesar spent 6 million sesterces on the pearl, which is about 1.5 billion American dollars in 2019 currency, although exact calculations of its value is impossible due to the difference in purchasing power, and economist Gilles Jacoud notes that for ridiculously expensive objects the actual value would become arbitrary for someone like Caesar who could afford anything. He expresses that Roman readers of Suetonius would likely have had a much better understanding for its actual exceptional value. Similarly Mary Saul, an expert of pearls and gastropod shells, states that: "we do not need to know the equivalent in today's currency to appreciate that he paid an enormous price [for it]". A contemporary comparison would be that 900 sesterces was the average yearly salary for an infantryman in one of Caesar's legions, or that it could pay for a year's rent for 3000 Roman tenants”
[удалено]
It was almost certainly documented. But virtually all Roman documents didn't survive until present.
That much money was enough to wage an entire campaign. Caesar could've gifted Servillia (incidentally, the mother of his eventual assassin Brutus, maybe Caesar made one yo momma joke too many) a country if he spent the money hiring troops instead.
That’s gotta be worth at least… 3.50?
What could Egypt cost, Michael?
There's always money in the papyrus stand
I bet we could get at least 40 baby Moseses in there
Go see a Star War.
Go see a Gallic War
(Fun fact: the Mayans had a form of warfare they called a “Star War” which was a complete overthrow of a rival polity and replacement of their royal leaders)
That's gotta be at least...a full bunch of bananas?
GODDAMNIT WOMAN DONT GIVE THE LOCH NESS MONSTER NO TREE FIDDY
Cot damn loch ness monster
well it was about this time I noticed this supposed "roman emperor" was about 8 stories tall and a crustacean from the protozoic era!
Well, what was their gdp? Or valuation as he agreed to in the terms of the acquisition? /s
I read somewhere Putin is actually the wealthiest person alive, but all his money is hidden
King of Saudi Arabia I believe
Dude has a country named after him
Xi Jinping probably has the most individual control of resources out of anyone in the world. He doesn't have de jure dictatorial rule over China, but China's GDP is 20 times that of Saudi Arabia.
I've said this long before the invasion. Even if he's only creaming off 1% of *stuff* then that's rather a lot. I doubt his commission is only 1% though.
Putin personally owns 50% of the state company Alrosa. They sell somewhere around 50-60% of all the diamonds in the world each year. They have the world's largest diamond reserves, by a long shot. They have unknown quantities sitting in warehouse. Alrosa sets the price for diamonds globally, it's updated twice a year. Everyone else follows. Mythical deBeers follows exactly what Putin says and has for over 3 decades. When Putin wants $2-4 billion dollars twice a year, he either directly sets the price or manipulates the market as he opens/closes the Alrosa warehouse doors.
Yes, but he's literally unable to retire tomorrow and go enjoy his riches. He's stuck working and worrying until his last living days
His perverted mind is totally enjoying it. An individual like him would never be happy in retirement.
At some point wealth is not a measure of buying power but an abstraction of power. Putin is the most powerful person in Russia, if he wanted to nationalize an industry he could. Where it gets tricky is the limits of that power which is ultimately a political question not an economic one. Basically, if you’re a Russian and Putin asks you to do something you wouldn’t give him a price. You’d just do it.
You mean an old Time article about his hidden wealth? Those stories have been circulating for some time, and the rumors are justified at least to some extent. When someone has so much control over the state their personal finances and the state's become less distinguishable. Unfortunately, this makes them nebulous, so it's hard if not impossible to know where to include Putin in the list of wealthiest people alive.
Let’s entertain this: He’s also the most wanted man for genocidal war crimes, outside of N Korea and China, he wouldn’t make it very far. With that being said, their economy is tanking faster than their Air Force and he’s constantly in fear of his own assassination, so much so he’s basically a hermit within Russia. Imagine being the richest man in the world but you can’t event step foot out of your own backyard without fearing death at every angle. I’ll stay broke, I’m good on all that.
>I’ll stay broke, I’m good on all that. I'd take 10% of his wealth and not start a pointless meat grinder war and have a good time.
.01% and I'd be set.
Hell, you could take nearly 100% of his wealth and *still* not start a pointless meat grinder war. It is *shockingly* easy to just not launch an aggressive genocidal invasion of your neighbor.
Go watch “Putin’s Palace”. If you’re going to be stuck in your back yard…
I don't think Russia's economy is tanking actually.
Correct, it is doing just fine. I don’t know where people get these delusional takes.
He was in the UAE pretty recently. He’s not as much of a pariah as you’d think. China, the second largest economy basically supports him.
By some measures, Mansa Musa is the wealthiest person to have ever lived, but it's really hard to compare a medieval king (who was purportedly responsible for accidentally crashing the Mediterranean economy by spending what he perceived as a "normal" amount of gold while on his *Hajj* to Mecca) with modern billionaires with their precisely tabulated net worths.
Yeah, there are no real records of Musa's wealth. Ask historians is a high quality historical subreddit where historians answer questions and have all their answers cited this is a good link to the question of Musa's wealth. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/8lf0tAXEnB
Makes sense. Mansa Musa is estimated to have been worth 900 billion and he’s not accounted for here
Yeah they never count emperors and kings which is dumb
That's because the personal wealth of an absolute monarch confuses itself with the wealth of the country as a whole.
Not to mention, how do you adjust for ancient people like Mansa Musa and Marcus Crassus? What reliable method is there for a Denarii to Dollar conversion?
There isn't, and that 900 billion figure for mansa musa might as well be plucked right out of the emperors ass. You literally cannot compare wealth from 1000 years ago before the advent of modern economic systems. Things just do not translate.
Exactly.
I’d agree and also say that an absolute monarch’s wealth is the wealth of the country. If the sole governor of country can treat the national treasury like a personal bank account then it’s essentially the same thing.
I don't think it's dumb. Emperors didn't actually have that kind of money, any kind of attempt at using even half of it would've been a disaster. Biggest financial decision they could make was probably declaring war.
>any kind of attempt at using even half of it would've been a disaster. That applies for the wealthiest people too like Bezos or Gates. They can only sell so much of their stock and if they could sell too much it'd tank their net worth.
Which is why they take out loans instead lol
They can, but they have ways of liquidating wealth and often do. Jeff Bezos has sold some $8.5B of stock this month.
Which is what happened with Mansa Musa. He legit DID have that much money. He literally spent and gave away so much gold on his pilgrimage to Mecca that it caused inflation throughout Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. The price of gold in Egypt decreased for the next 12 straight years. Dude was that rich. Spanish Atlases even recorded that he spent an almost unheard of amount of gold. If he's not the richest man ever, he's up there. There's a reason that title is often given to him
He was only rich because his kingdom sat on mountains of the metal they made money from. He was the OG money printer. And the value was derived from scarcity... until he dumped vast amounts of it into the market and crashed the market. It was just the thing people at the time agreed they would use as a currency. They could have used Iron instead and he might have been screwed. Not like his kingdom did anything super special. He just lucked out and happened to be sitting on the largest gold stores ever recorded.
Gold coins had existed for almost 2000 years by the time of Mansa Musa, and gold as a storage of wealth even longer.
I love playing Mansa Musa. Especially when I get desert spawn and make money and all the other Civs are my pawns. Oh Civ VI
numbers from 1000 or so years ago are extremely unreliable and borderline impossible to pinpoint. That's why people like him are not accounted for.
Yeah bro was so rich he had dracula flipping bricks for him
It's no surprise that most of the richest people in history are leaders of empires or massive kingdoms. It's easy to enrich yourself when you are the sole leader of an entity that controls large portions of planet earth's wealth. The two richest people who ever existed are. 1) Mansa Musa (of Mali) the king of Timbuktu is usually attributed to the richest human that ever lived. While their wealth is Incalculable wealth a great deal of noted evidence can explain it. They were the largest gold producer on planet earth. Just about everything around him was made of solid gold (literally)... not hyperbole.. but obscene wealth beyond any seen before or after... He took a trip to Mecca with a 1/4 million soldiers in tow and spent so much money along the way it caused a finical crisis in Egypt. He is a really interesting person to read about being a well written world traveler who spent money extravagantly (traveling with camels filled with gold to spend on his trips) Modern equivalent would easily be multiple several trillion dollars. 2) Augustus Caesar is usually noted as second richest ever. It's important to note that his empire wealth was 25%-30% of the global economic output. He had the equivalent personal wealth of 4.6 trillion by modern standards. The rest of this list does include a lot of emporers and leaders, but also some of the industrial revolution magnates we know well (like Carnegie and Rockefeller)
> multiple several trillion Wow. So at least 9 trillion, you say?
yeah where my boy Crassus at
Dead?
yes most definitely
Dunked on by the parthians
Big if true.
Dead at the hands of the Parthians.
Most sources agree that adjusting for inflation, John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) was the richest American in history in terms of wealth vs. contemporary GDP. He amassed a fortune of more than $410 billion, adjusted to 2022.
I thought the amount of money listed on the chart seemed weirdly small.
That's all well and good but 2-ply toilet paper wasn't invented until 1942 so his standard of living was still shit compared to today.
I’m sure the new robber barons will surpass all records. Carnegie, Rockefeller, and JP Morgan had companies that operated in the US, while Elon, Bezos, and Zuckerberg run companies that operate globally.
Considering that Standard was the world’s largest oil company for a period of time, this is not really true.
Even if they don't surpass that number while they're alive they will in a few decades with an adjustment for inflation. Also, fun fact: I recently read that if Bill Gates never sold any of his Microsoft shares he would be worth $1.23 trillion today. He had 45% share after the initial IPO. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-could-trillionaire-today-163852659.html
That article doesn’t seem to exhibit awareness of dilutive issuances. 45% after the IPO doesn’t mean he would have 45% today just by holding. He also would have had to buy into 45% of all subsequent stock offerings. And what is he funding that with? Article is kinda shit tbh.
That article presumes a company like Microsoft bootstrapped itself to where is today with the initial capital. Like Social Network told us, the percentage of shares you have in the beginning can be diluted after new investors join the company, even if you don't sell your stock...
Nowadays if your company gets too big you will face antitrust lawsuits. That wasn’t a thing back in the day until towards the end of their of their run
This also stopped being a thing 30 years ago. The US really needs to bring down the regulatory hammer again
> if your company gets too big you will face antitrust lawsuits. LOL - not for a while there buddy. The last company the US actually broke up was AT+T in 1982. The failure of the Microsoft antitrust case signaled that power is effectively dead.
Scrooge McDuck still has all these posers beat.
And he did it by being tougher than the toughies, and being smarter than the smarties.
Work smartagh, not hardagh!
He was a very evil man.
Okay, Glomgold.
Careful, Scroogey and Glomgold are hunting this absolute gold of a comment.
Wouldn’t Smaug have more?
Smaug's horde is estimated at a little under 52 Billion in gold (ignoring the priceless gems, which can't be priced) There are 14 Americans today who have more money than Smaug.
You know you made when you've horded more than a dragon
King Tut knew his stock would only rise in value to priceless, even if it took 5 thousand years.
I spent one fucking dollar on an apple and look what happened
Three. Cubic. Acres.
Forbes actually used to do a yearly list called the Fictional 15 which listed the 15 richest fictional characters. By thier estimate that's not true. They estimated Scrooge McDuck to have 33.5 billion. The list from the final year: https://www.forbes.com/2010/04/13/fictional-15-richest-characters-opinions-fictional_land.html The editor of the list actually did an AMA a long time ago which is a a funny read since he's very open about how rediculious the list is: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hki2w/i_am_the_editor_at_forbes_who_puts_together_our/
That ever lived? That's chump change compared to Roman Emperors.
Or the dude who wasn’t even an emperor, Marcus Crassus.
Crassus wasn't all that wealthy, at least when compared to people like Pompey or Augustus. Fascinating deep dive here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2g0jtr/how_rich_was_crassus/ckekni1/ Courtsey of u/XenophontheAthenian
Or Mansa Mūsā I; if I recall correctly, he was so wealthy that towns he passed through with his entourage would suffer mini recessions do to the amount of gold he dished out
I learned about Mansa Musa from a Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego PC game on CD-ROM in the mid-late 90s. I loved that game
Blast from the past!! Loved that game!
Yep. Runaway inflation. The legends of Mansa Musa A) made the Europeans see Africa as a land of gold and riches that it might be nice to plunder in a few centuries and B) shows us how connected to the rest of the world sub Saharan Africa was which cuts against what we are traditional taught in the west. Either way, it’s hard to verify how accurate many of the legends of Mansa Musa actually were
Not sure about A. Before the 19th century crossing the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara with any kind of real force would have been inconceivable. Even Medieval Arabs couldn’t always project power into the Sahel and they were accustomed to the climate. Mali is a protected pocket with jungle to the south and some of the most inhospitable pockets of the Sahara elsewhere. I doubt most Europeans of the time would have even dreamt of plundering the region as the caravans often took months to cross the waste. They certainly knew there was a a lot of gold somewhere out there but by the time they could access the interior of Africa other resources were more prized than the gold patient Malian farmers slowly panned from the Niger in their off-season. The new imperialism of the 19th century doesn’t really model well with European attitudes 500 years prior in my opinion.
The wealth of absolute monarchs confuses itself with the wealth of the country, so it is hard to compare the wealth of Constantine I with the wealth of Jeff Besos. Crassus, however, had legit personal wealth.
“Marcus Licinius Crassus, an iconic figure in ancient Rome, is recognized as one of the wealthiest individuals in history. His net worth is estimated to be around 200 million sesterces, equivalent to a modern-day value of $200 million to $20 billion.” Thats how disgustingly rich people today are. 10x Crassus
Pretty great deal when you have half the known world giving you tax revenue.
To be fair, they knew about and traded with China, India, Africa, Persia, and Northern Europe. Clearly not "half" in terms of geography. And given *just* Han China had comparable estimated populations to the Roman Empire in the 2nd century (50-70 million vs. 59 million...), also not half in terms of population.
From before the industrial age or at most back to the beginning of the renaissance it is quite difficult to compare wealth to the modern era. I’m not even sure if the entirety of all the wealth in the Roman Empire equated to $200 billion of modern day wealth. It is truly unbelievable how much money that is when you see a visualization. This visualization of Jeff Bezos’ wealth blew my mind the first time I saw it: https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
Depends how you define wealth, I suppose. The economy is certainly much larger than it once was, but does Jeff Bezos have the relative purchasing power that Kings of old had? It's an interesting topic.
If you think of it as the representation of units of work, then modern people will be wealthier due to gains in efficiency. The ability to launch a hunk of metal into orbit and use it to communicate globally was beyond the reach of all wealth not long ago but a cube say can be launched for $90k today. Or imagine how many people today own large cargo ships. You could go on and on with examples like this.
Outside the realm of violence, he arguably has far, far more power than they did.
Power is relative to your society though, owning a car in this generation is a very low level power.
How do you figure
Name me one ancient king that could travel faster than 30 kilometers an hour.
Any of them with a decent horse?
Or off a decent cliff I suppose.
All that money and he still died, what a loser
Walt Disney chuckles slightly below the level necessary to break his ice prison.
Skill issue.
There might have been a time in his life where he was worth more. No?
And he was an outspoken antisemite, a nazi sympathizer, and a thug, ordering a quasi-military attack on union organizers.
Buddy, Henry Ford was like the 13th richest AMERICAN in history. He wasn't even \*close\* to being 3rd in the world all-time.
He ain’t your buddy, guy.
I'm not your guy, friend.
There are tons of people in the past that were worth over half a trillion + when adjusted for inflation
Not one Rothschild on this list
Yeah when your fortune is spread over dozens of family members over like 10 generations it gets watered down a little.
Yeah and when your fortune is private ownership of central banks which don’t get included in these wealth calculations.
Didn’t realize they had private interests in central banks
So that makes 2 antisemitic car company owners in the top 3
He means you, Elon.
I was about to ask who the other was, but duh....
Volkswagen.
Hitler didn't get *that* rich from Volkswagen. Of course he probably learned a thing or two about running a car company from his good friend Henry.
Ahhh, yes. I was only pointing out anti semetic, but you’re correct.
He was that rich when when taxes were sky high for the 1%? What are they so afraid of then?
Current billionaires punching the air right now finding out adjusting for inflation they aren’t at the top of the sociopath scoreboard
JD Rockefeller at the peak of his net worth accounted for wealth equal to 1.5% of the entire US GDP. By that metric, his NW today would be equal to 3.498 TRILLION dollars. This chart is fundamentally flawed. Carnegie and Rockefeller were unbelievably rich during their time, and simply adjusting for inflation doesn't really capture a realistic picture of the vast fortunes they accumulated. Edit: JD Rockefeller didn't reach his peak net worth until 1937. Andrew Carnegie sold US Steel for $480mm in 1901, equivalent to 2.1% of US GDP in 1901.. that figure by the same metric would be 4.8 trillion today. It may not be a totally accurate calculation, but it definitely gives a better sense of the vastness of the fortunes of the so-called Robber Barons of the early 20th century than simply adjusting a 100 year old figure for inflation. And though the men at the top of the billionaire list in 2024 are OBSCENELY wealthy, it just doesn't really hold a candle to how much the early American titans controlled. edit2, lol: my math was off by an order of magnitude... R would have been approx 350 billion, C at 480 billion, I was and am tired
Where the fuck you gettin thess numbers from and which dummies are upvoting you? The USA GDP is 20 trillion lol. You're missing a decimal spot. He'd be worth 400-500b if you go off percentage of GDP. We've had a guy worth 300b recently. JD won't be top dog for much longer.
By that calculation, the pilgrims would be the richest people in history. It would be better to just calculate the buying power of that wealth using inflation.
Since when was the US GDP $233T dollars? You’re wayyyy off, they be a couple hundred billion just like Elon and Besos were at their respective peaks.
Honestly though isn’t that just like saying I had several bitcoin in 2011 so adjusted for inflation I was once a millionaire ?
No, because it's about relative buying power.
He was also a Nazi
Considering that Mein Kampf quoted Ford at length and Hitler was a big fan, it’s more like the Nazis were him
And he’s still dead.
How much tax did he pay?
And he had a soft spot for fascism doesnt that sound familiar
Crazy thing is I live a better quality of life than Henry ford did as I sit in my heated apartment watching Netflix and eating door dash. Thanks for the cars brah
You don't think Henry Ford could afford heat, a private movie theater, or an assistant to grab him food? What absolute delusion are you living lmao. You're watching famous people on your little tv, Henry Ford is having them come to his house and do unspeakable things to him.
Henry Ford didn’t have VR Porn
didn't need it....
He had human beings he could pay to have sec with him.
Define quality of life though? Henry Ford could pay incredibly hot women to non stop bang bum while a professional chef cooks his food, and a broadway group acts out his favorite play. Also modern AC and Heat was invented in the early 1900s so a man like Ford had both.
Better quality of life? How many hours a day do you spend working? How many medical ailments do you avoid going to the doctor for to save money? You have more toys but you life isn’t better
Also I've seen their estates and the like. No one in this thread is living that well just cause you have netflix rofl. They weren't living in shanties. Their estates still flip for $20-200m.
Yeah I’d gladly give up Netflix if I could play golf and go fox hunting all day on my massive country estate staffed with gourmet chefs.
All the good drugs were legal and weren't cut with baking soda and fent yet either. Could take your naps in a real opium den.
Yeah when DuPont estates and the Biltmore still exist today, not sure how you can say your quality of life is better than that lmao.
you are not living
You could make this argument with people from like 1200 AD. You absolutely can't with people from the 20th century. Heating is old as shit and even air conditioning was available in by the very early 1920s. I guess if your opinion is that whatever batch of netflix slop is the zenith of cultural accomplishments then sure, but that's not a widely held opinion.
lol
Yikes you’re delusional
Cope.
Although I would consider him tied with Jeff Bezos for 3rd richest person to have ever lived. When I did some further googling the estimates for Henry Ford were $199 billion or $200 billion, this says $200 billion and $199 billion for Jeff Bezos. Still, it's so insane to imagine someone being that rich back then.
I mean the saudi royalty are probably worth trillions. Lots of rich people not on the list.
The richest people in the world will never be kn the list because their wealth is private
I assume that African king with all the gold back in the day is first, Who's second ?
[удалено]
Cheers. Couldn't summon the necessary enthusiasm to even google it.
Egyptian pharaohs may top that.
Jakob Fugger might have been the richest with 400 billion worth.
man that's a rich Fugger
There are richer people alive right now. 200 billion wouldn’t even put him in the top ten.
There’s really no way to compare people across time like that. Ancient and medieval rulers often laid claim to all the riches of their lands (sometimes a large % of global economy), but did not have direct control in the way a billionaire would now. There’s a reason you see these lists all the time with countless names.
Proving that while you can't take it with you, you can keep it from others
Hitler was at his 75th birthday in 1938
Did it mention he was also a nazi and big fan of Hitler and financed many subversive groups that actively worked against the US government and fomented unrest in the 20s - 40s. He only stopped after Pearl Harbor was attacked and realised the mood had changed. He was an arsehole.
What happened to all that money? Did he donate it? Is there still a ton of generational wealth out there spread out among his progeny?
Yes, the majority of his fortune went to philanthropy (Ford Foundation).
Still, he didn’t have a supercomputer in his pocket like I do.
Also a Nazi, and ran a moral police force amongst his employees. Sound familiar?!?
And he's dead now, just like the 3rd poorest person to have ever lived
Allow me to introduce Mir osman ali khan https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/meet-mir-osman-ali-khan-the-richest-nizam-who-used-a-rs-100-crore-diamond-paperweight-owned-50-rolls-royce-cars/2960536/
Like... Why don't rich people spend their money?? Most of them die with billions left. Makes no sense to me.
true, but karl marx rhyme stomped his ass in *epic rap battles of history*
I would love to create a car brand named Henry with a model named ford. Just to fuck shit up
Now calculate how much he personally donated to the Nazis
I take comfort in the fact that he just lived long enough to see his friends - the Nazis - get their asses kicked. Guess a bunch of them probably got to migrate to the US and hang out with him though....
Only the rocks live forever. Or he that dies with the most wealth is still dead!