20 Richest People In History Who Make Today’s Billionaires Look Poor

Mansa Musa was king of the Mali Empire from around 1312 to 1337, and he’s considered by historians to be the richest person in history. He controlled West African gold and salt routes that generated more than half the gold found in the Old World. In 1324, while on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Musa handed out so much gold in Cairo that it caused inflation, devaluing the local currency for approximately 12 years, according to the Arab chronicler Al-Umari. The source of his wealth was a sovereign monopoly, not cash in reserve, so it is impossible to convert his riches into today’s dollars, but you can probably imagine just how filthy rich the guy was.

John D. Rockefeller owned Standard Oil, which processed more than 90% of American oil at its height. When the US Supreme Court split up the company into 34 units in 1911, Rockefeller’s personal holdings soared in value, as the sum of the spun-off stocks traded higher than the original trust. He became the nation’s first dollar billionaire in 1916, and his net worth was $1.4 billion in 1937, which was about 1.5 to 2% of the US GDP. As a share of the economy, that works out to $340 to $400 billion-plus today. I can barely wrap my head around that number!

Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, annexed Egypt in 30 BCE following the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, creating a special province under his personal rule. Egypt’s grain production and taxes went directly to the imperial coffers. It has been estimated that Augustus’s empire accounted for 20 to 30% of the world’s economic output. Augustus did not own Egypt the way he might own a piece of land; rather, he ruled over it.

Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie created the world’s largest steel producer, Carnegie Steel, using the newly developed Bessemer process and vertical integration. Financier J.P. Morgan bought the company in 1901 for $480 million, of which Carnegie pocketed $300 million in gold bonds. At its height, his wealth represented more than 2.1% of US GDP, worth $310 to $370 billion-plus now. Now, if you’re wondering what one does with that amount of wealth, you’ll be pleased to know that Carnegie donated most of it to charity before he died in 1919.

Marcus Licinius Crassus, a Roman general and politician, had the largest private fortune ever accumulated in the history of the late Roman Republic, estimated at 200 million sesterces, equal to the total annual state budget. Crassus’s wealth came from slave dealing, silver mines, the purchase of cheap seized properties, and the establishment of Rome’s first private fire brigade, which offered to buy burning buildings before putting out the flames. He funded the early political career of a young Julius Caesar and died at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE. There’s a famous tale about the Parthians pouring molten gold down his throat, which is the exact image you would associate with someone super rich, but alas, this didn’t actually happen.

The New York ferryman Cornelius Vanderbilt had built up a steamboat empire and was moving into railroads when the 1850s arrived. He consolidated the New York Central Railroad, linking New York and Chicago. In 1877, when he died, Vanderbilt’s fortune was valued at over $100 million, reportedly more liquid wealth than the US Treasury was carrying, and around 1.15 to 1.2% of US GDP, or $185 billion to $200 billion-plus in modern terms.

Nathan Mayer Rothschild set up the London branch of the Rothschild family of bankers, building an international courier network and becoming a pioneer in European sovereign bond markets. He contributed to financing Britain’s war against Napoleon by sending bullion to support the army of the Duke of Wellington. The popular story that he made a fortune in one day by trading on advance news of Waterloo originates from an 1846 pamphlet with no factual basis. Sometimes it really does take decades of hard work to finally see some results. His actual net worth at death was approximately 0.6% of British GDP, the result of decades of work underwriting sovereign bonds.

After winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, became King of England. He seized much of the Anglo-Saxon land and gave it to his Norman followers. He also retained huge tracts for the Crown. To maximize the revenue from his new kingdom, he commissioned the Domesday Book in 1086, a countrywide census. His land and loot were worth over $220 billion in modern relative value.

The Augsburg merchant banker Jakob Fugger was able to gain near-monopolies over the copper and silver mines of Europe through heavy financial backing of the Habsburg dynasty. Fugger’s funds were critical to getting Charles V elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. This just proves that money can buy you (or anyone you want) power. When he died in December 1525, his company’s balance sheets showed a total of 2.1 million guilders, or roughly 2% of Europe’s entire economy at the time, or around $400 billion in modern dollars.

John Jacob Astor was a German-American businessman who created a national fur monopoly with his American Fur Company. In the 1830s, Astor sold his fur empire and purchased Manhattan land, which he then leased out as the city expanded into his holdings. At the time of his death in 1848, Astor’s net worth was between $20 million and $25 million, which was roughly 1% of the United States’ GDP at the time, or between $120 billion and $180 billion today. There have been many multimillionaires over the years, but he was America’s first.

The railroad speculator Jay Gould beat railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt to a controlling interest in the Erie Railroad in 1868. In 1869, he attempted to corner the US gold market, and the resulting collapse triggered the Black Friday panic of September 24, 1869. Gould ended up controlling Western Union and about 15% of all US rail mileage. At his death in 1892, his estate was valued at $70 to $77 million ($71 billion adjusted).

Akbar the Great, the third Mughal Emperor, ruled much of the Indian subcontinent and created a system of ranking Mughal nobles based on the amount of revenue they raised for him, which was called the mansabdari system. According to economist Angus Maddison’s models, Akbar’s India accounted for roughly 25% of global output and was larger than Western Europe’s economy. The treasury of his capital city, Agra, also contained vast amounts of precious metals, gems, and textiles.

Cosimo de’ Medici, a Florentine banker, founded the Medici dynasty. He made the Medici Bank the pre-eminent financial institution in Europe, with offices in Rome, London, Bruges, and Venice, and was awarded the lucrative right to act as the bankers for the Papacy itself. He used the resulting revenues to run Florence, though he never assumed any official position. He also financed Brunelleschi’s dome, which is actually the largest masonry dome ever constructed.

Emperor Shenzong of China’s Song Dynasty oversaw a period of extensive economic reform. Under his prime minister, Wang Anshi, the government introduced the New Policies, which centralized tax collection and established state monopolies on salt and tea, as well as issuing paper currency. Current econometric reconstructions of GDP, such as those conducted by the Maddison Project, suggest that under Emperor Shenzong, Song China produced between 25% and 30% of the world’s economic output.

Alan Rufus, a Breton nobleman, helped William the Conqueror crush rebellions in northern England. For being such a loyal supporter, he was given more than 250,000 acres spanning Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, and East Anglia, and built Richmond Castle. When he died in 1093, his estate was worth £11,000, which one model places at 7% of England’s total national income, or about $180 billion to $195 billion today. Almost no one has heard his name, but I guess that doesn’t matter when you’re rolling in cash!

Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, was an English naval commander who bankrolled the English Hundred Years’ War with France via land leases, wool exports, and loans to the English monarch Edward III. Upon his death in January 1376, he left behind £60,000 in coins, with £30,000 stored in the High Tower of Arundel Castle, equaling more than $110 billion in today’s money. I guess you don’t need a safe when you have a whole tower you can hide your riches in.

Stephen Girard was a French-born Philadelphia merchant who made a fortune in the West Indies, operating his own bank. In 1814, when the public failed to buy $16 million in bonds from the federal government for the War of 1812, Girard bought over $7 million himself, preventing the US Treasury from defaulting. When he died in 1831, he was worth some $7.5 million (about 1/150th of US GDP). He left almost all of it to charity and founded Girard College.

Alexander Turney Stewart, an Irish immigrant, revolutionized New York retail by instituting fixed-price policies, mail-order services, and massive advertising campaigns. In 1846, he erected the “Marble Palace,” America’s first department store, and then, in 1862, the “Cast Iron Palace.” His businesses eventually encompassed wholesale merchandising, textile factories, and land holdings. At his death in 1876, his estimated net worth stood at between $40 and $50 million, or about $90 billion in relative terms.

The Byzantine emperor Basil II, who reigned for 49 years, restored the empire’s borders, brought Bulgaria under his control, and reigned over the dynatoi, powerful local landholders, through a tax surcharge called allelengyon. Through thrift, war loot, and trade tariffs, he accumulated an imperial treasury of 200,000 gold talents (about 5.9 million gold coins), according to the Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes. That’s a sum that would have been worth approximately $128 billion in terms of the metal when Basil II died in 1025.

The Duke of Lancaster, also known as John of Gaunt, was a son of Edward III. Through his marriage to Blanche of Lancaster, he acquired the enormous Duchy of Lancaster estates. He had over thirty castles (including Kenilworth Castle and the Savoy Palace), and his revenues were roughly equivalent to the crown’s, or $110 to $120 billion in today’s dollars. During the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, rebels burned down the Savoy Palace, targeting Gaunt’s fortune and power as a symbol of what they saw as an unjust government. Sometimes you really can’t blame the person who acquired so much wealth, but you can be annoyed at the circumstances.

This content was created with the help of AI.