How do Jeff Bezos? and Bill Gates? multi billion dollar fortunes fare against the richest figures throughout history? We tried to measure everyone with the same yardstick to find out who is the wealthiest figure of all time.
The Innovators
The wealthiest person in the world right now is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, with a total worth of $125.8 billion. The second richest person in the world, Bill Gates is currently valued at $ 96.1 billion. However, if we consider inflation and value of their assets and compare with all the wealthiest men in history, Jeff and Bill will be lucky to even find a place in the top 10.
They will be outranked by automobile king Henry Ford who, while more than doubled the typical day wage and at the same time amassed a fortune worth a hundred million dollars. The Ford Motor Company owner could be sitting on anywhere between 100 to 200 billion US dollars if it was today.
The Bankers and Businessmen
The bankers and business monopolies have created more billionaires than by any other means. While Henry Ford was still in his infancy, business owners like John D.? Rockerfeller have already amassed wealth worth billions with his Standard Oil Company that had a monopoly on oil at the time. When he died in 1937, his total assets was worth more than 1.4 billion which in today?s worth with be anywhere between 250 ? 400 billion US dollars.
The richest banker/businessman of all time will however be Jakob Fugger. He was the creator of Fuggerei ? the first affordable housing project. It is believed that at the time of his death in 1525, his wealth accounted for 2% of Europe?s GDP. Jakob Fugger could worth anything between 400 ? 500 billion US dollars.
The Monarchs
We can say without a doubt that the kings and monarchs are the absolute wealthiest people of all time. Even a relatively lesser known ruler like Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII was the nizam of Hyderabad had roughly 2 billion and crown jewels which will be valued about 210 billion US dollars today. The most popular Roman emperor Augustus Caesar (63BC ? 14 AD) owned one-fifth of the empire?s economy. The empire?s economy consisted about 25-35% of global GDP. That would put the emperor?s net worth at around 4.6 trillion.
Does that make him the wealthiest? Well, No. Emperor Shenzong of Song is said to have been valued at 25-30% of global GDP during his life (1048 – 1085 AD). Genghis Khan owned 12 million square miles of land across Asia and Europe. King Solomon of Israel is said to have taken 666 talents (25 tons) of gold as taxes every year. Sometimes it is hard to evaluate the worth of a historical figure but the one thing we can say with certainty is that the wealthiest among them was a monarch.