Over the past 10 years, the number of billionaires worldwide has skyrocketed. During the mid-1990s, the total share of wealth among billionaires was about $1 trillion dollars. But as of 2017, that number has grown by 800%. Today, just eight people control as much money as the bottom 3.6 billion people on the planet. But in spite of their incredible wealth, not one of those eight comes anywhere close to the richest people in history. So who holds the title, and how much money did they have?
Well it's important to note that the value of currency over time is incredibly difficult to calculate, and all of the figures we present our rough estimations of modern-day currency. Nonetheless, these historical figures were almost undoubtedly the richest of their era, and we can start, most recently, with former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.
As of the start of the 21st century, Gaddafi had ruled over Libya for four decades, and spent that time consolidating power and wealth. During the Libyan Civil War, which eventually led to his death, Gaddafi was in total control of Libya's economy, and spent it lavishly on himself. When the United Nations voted to freeze his personal assets, estimated $130billion dollars in real estate and financial holdings around the world were seized. Further investigation, found that the dictator’s total stashed wealth, all embezzled from the Libyan economy, was closer to $200 billion dollars, making him the richest man in the world at the start of the Libyan civil war in 2011.
This sort of wealth by world leaders is certainly not new. It's going back more than 2,000 years to ancient Rome; one of the most commonly referenced richest people ever was Marcus Licinius Crassus. Crassus was a Roman politician who was alleged to have made his fortune through slave trade, silver mines, and real estate. Most notably, Crassus was known to have formed the first fire fighting Brigade. But instead of arriving at an ongoing fire, and putting it out, Crassus would negotiate for the sale of the property from the homeowner, as it burned to the ground. Only then would he direct his brigade to put out the fire. He was also known to enslave architects and builders to reconstruct these burnt-out homes, which contributed to his massive real-estate fortune. Crassus was estimated to control two 200 million sesterces, which doesn't have a direct dollar value, but was roughly the same as the entire Roman Treasuries annual budget.
However, modern historical accounts suggest that Crassus was not nearly as rich as his contemporary, Emperor Augustus Caesar. According to Time magazine and Stanford Professor Ian Morris, Augustus's Roman Empire was alleged to control as much as 1/3 of the entire world's economic output. His personal fortune was believed to be about 1/5 of that amount. That's roughly $4.6 trillion dollars, and included personal ownership over the entire country of Egypt.
But neither Gaddafi nor Crassus nor Augustus holds a candle to the richest man who has ever lived. Mansa Musa of Mali has been described as so inconceivably rich that no accurate figure could do justice to his wealth. He ruled Mali during the 14th century, spanning what is today Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and of course Mali. His extraordinary fortune came from enormous gold reserves on his territory, which he distributed throughout Africa. In particular, one massive pilgrimage he undertook from Mali to Mecca spread his legendary status around the world. Mansa's entourage included hundreds of thousands of soldiers, civilians and slaves, all carrying literally tons of gold. Allegedly, his generous distribution of gold created financial crises and mass inflation along his pilgrimage, and he single-handedly urbanized entire cities, building schools, and mosques. Simply put, Mansa Musa was so indescribably rich that there's no frame of reference to estimate his wealth, and he ranks historically as the wealthiest person in history, hands down.
But while these people known for their fortunes, today, incredible wealth is more often distributed among entire families than singular people. One of the most commonly named wealthiest families in the world is the Rothschild family. Find out just how much money they have and who they are by press the follow button. Thanks for checking out. Don't forget to follow, resteem, and upvote for more interesting article just like this every week. Thank you.