The pursuit of wealth is as old as humanity itself and spans generations of millions of years. Most of the progress has been devoted to empowerment and what it brings. When we think of wealth today, we often think of the huge personal fortunes of tycoons like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Warren Buffett. However, it has only been a standard to measure bank account wealth since the Industrial Revolution.
And, in reality, there have been people who hoarded larger fortunes, inconceivable to many.
For most of recorded human history, in fact, the lines around wealth have been pretty blurry. Leaders such as Caesar Augustus or Emperor Shenzong had absolute control of their empires, with an abundance of heritage, gold and immeasurable lands. This infographic published by Visualcapitalist with Texas Precious Metals illustrates on a map the richest people in history until the Industrial Revolution, highlighting key facts and anecdotes about how they created their wealth.
You can see the map in its maximum resolution here.
The wealth ranking
First, much of the wealth in the early periods is tied to land (Genghis Khan) or empires (Augustus or Akbar the Great), which makes calculations are extremely subjective. How much was most of the land of Asia worth in the year 1219? What separates personal fortune from the riches of an empire over which one has full control? It is difficult to know. And there are a wide variety of answers to these questions.
Second, records from antiquity are sparse, exaggerated, or based on legends and oral histories. For example, King Solomon or Mansa Musa are characters described as impressively wealthy in history books, so trying to put their wealth in a modern context is nearly impossible and inaccurate.
In Magnet we have talked about the latter. According to his contemporaries, the wealth of Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire in 1312, cannot be fathomed. His net worth has been valued by today’s scholars in around 400,000 million euros (more than double Bezos). His kingdom stretched for approximately 3,200 kilometers, from the Atlantic Ocean to present-day Niger, encompassing parts of what are now Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and the Ivory Coast.
His empire flourished thanks to extensive natural resources such as gold and salt. In fact, controlled more than half of the world’s supply at that time. In total, his empire accounted for almost half of the Old World gold, according to some researchers at the British Museum.
But wealth and conversion rates can also be approached in different ways. Take the example of Marcus Licinius Crassus, in the Roman Republic, who had a maximum fortune of “200 million sesterces.” That stash could be worth between € 200 million and € 170 billion, depending on how the calculations are done.
How did they hoard so much?
While it is interesting to speculate on the wealth of people from centuries past, coming up with a definitive list is exceptionally difficult. Scholars do not always agree on who could be number one. In other words, it is very difficult to calculate today the value of the heritage of so many centuries ago. This list published in graphic form by TitleMax suggests different candidates.
You can see the list in its maximum resolution here.
The first place in many of the rankings that we can find on the Internet is held by Caesar Augustus, first emperor of the Roman Empire. It is estimated that he has the largest net worth in history (4.4 trillion euros in modern money) and came to own a fifth of the wealth of an empire that accounted for about 30% of the world’s gross domestic product.
Another possible contender is Emperor Song Shenzong: also the leader of an empire that accounted for 30% of world GDP at the time and valued in the trillions, that of China. However, it is difficult to separate your personal wealth from that of your country. The same is true of Genghis Khan, another of the most profitable and terrifying emperors in history. Some estimates of his net worth give him figures of hundreds of thousands of euros and others maintain that it only had a huge amount of land instead of personal wealth.
In more recent history we find Jacobo Fúcar, nicknamed “el Rico”, occasionally “el Joven”. He was the richest and best-known banker and merchant in Europe in his time. Despite being worth an estimated $ 400 billion to $ 500 billion, most people don’t know the story of this Renaissance-era German Catholic tycoon. It had strict control over the copper and textile industries in Italy and even made loans to the famous royals of the House of Habsburg. It began what many consider the first European social housing program, the Fuggerei, only allowed (curiously) to Catholics.
Coming to the top of the list we find John D. Rockefeller, the oil magnate. The value of his fortune is estimated at 600,000 million. Net worth figures for him are a bit skewed, but his $ 1 billion in money from yesteryear would be worth several hundred billion now. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry. It was also the first great American corporate trust and defined the structure of modern philanthropy.
Rockefeller founded Standard Oil as an Ohio partnership with his brother William along with Henry Flagler, Jabez Bostwick, chemist Samuel Andrews, and a silent partner, Stephen V. Harkness. As kerosene and gasoline rose in importance, Rockefeller’s wealth soared and he became the richest man in the world.
And King Solomon? The Bible says that he had a fortune that dwarfed each and every person who lived before him. This made it the richest person in the world during the 40 years he reigned. Every year, he received 25 tons of gold. A ton of gold is worth € 60 million at € 1,800 per ounce. Therefore, 25 tons for 40 years is equivalent to 64 for 40 years of his reign equal to 64,300,800,000
And this did not include the income derived from business, commerce, or the annual tribute paid to him by all the kings and governors of Arabia. King Solomon’s throne was lined with pure gold, adorned with ivory. All the goblets and household items in Solomon’s palace were made of pure gold. He was reportedly so wealthy that during the years of his reign over Jerusalem, the immense wealth made silver considered of little value and as common as rocks. And no, nothing in Solomon’s palace was made of silver.