50 Wealthiest People of the Past 1,000 Years

[Ah Guan]

Rich & Richer

Fifty of the Wealthiest People of the Past 1,000 Years

By Rachel Emma Silverman

Throughout the millennium, and even before it, people have been fascinated by wealth and the wealthy -- who has how much, how they got it, how they spent it. And, of course, who has the most.
Who were the wealthiest people of the past 1,000 years? Potentates and popes, merchants and monarchs, industrialists, inventors and investors. Some are famous to this day, others infamous in their day. Some lost their fortunes after becoming wealthy; others gave their fortunes away. And there is only one woman on the list, because for most of the millennium women were prevented from earning or inheriting large fortunes.
So here are 50 of the richest people of the millennium. These aren't necessarily the 50 richest; historians have found that precisely measuring and comparing wealth over 10 centuries is a nearly impossible task. But these 50, listed chronologically, were by any measure outrageously and unfathomably wealthy in their eras -- not only rich, but often powerful, and with lifestyles to match.
(To view the entire timeline, please scroll right with your bottom scrollbar or use the "next" text links included in each timeline entry.) --Ms. Silverman, a news assistant in The Wall Street Journal's New York bureau, served as a researcher for this report.

Al-Mansur (938-1002)

Occupation: Leader of Moors
Source of wealth: Sacking, plundering
Assets: Six million pieces of gold
Claim to fame: Named himself "the Conqueror"
The dashingly handsome Moorish leader, born Abu'Amir al-Ma'asiri, rose to power in 979 by wooing the caliph's favorite concubine. That's also when he renamed himself Al-Mansur ("the Conqueror"). Every summer, Al-Mansur raided Christian Spain and hauled his booty back to Cordoba, where he also collected taxes from the prosperous citizens. He built a fabulous palace called Madinat al-Zahira -- the Shining City. Sometime later, a witness to the sacking of the castle by mutineers said, "Devils play in what had once been spaces full of luxury and melody... overspilling with jewels under vaults so splendid as to conjure heaven."

Basil II (958-1025)

Occupation: Byzantine emperor
Source of wealth: Land confiscation, silk monopolies
Assets: 300,000 pounds of gold
Claim to fame: Nickname, "Slayer of Bulgars," was well-earned
Under Basil II, the Byzantine Empire became the most powerful kingdom in Europe. Basil annexed Bulgaria by 1018, when he received the moniker "Slayer of Bulgars" and blinded thousands of Bulgarian prisoners. He flourished by manufacturing and trading silk. During his reign, the Byzantine Empire held a monopoly on royal-purple silk, a fabric prized by European monarchs. While his underground chambers held a vast store of gold, Basil II lived simply, relative to other monarchs, always dressing in the same royal-purple silk cape and purple boots.

Machmud of Ghazni (971-1030)

Occupation: Ruler of Afghanistan
Source of wealth: Plundering, slave trading
Assets: Gold, jewels, erotic manuscripts
Claim to fame: Filled poet's mouth with pearls
For 25 years, Machmud made annual invasions of northern India, pillaging temples, capturing slaves and transporting his spoils home on elephants. One year, he returned with so many captives that prices in the Afghan slave market plummeted. His court, the center of Persian/Islamic civilization, was decorated from floor to ceiling with tapestries of hunts and banquets; his library held a large collection of erotic manuscripts. He shared his palace with 400 poets, and he knew how to show his appreciation for the arts: He once filled a bard's mouth with pearls three times to acknowledge a moving eulogy.

Tenkaminen (11th century)

Occupation: Caliph of Ghana
Source of wealth: Import-export
Assets: Gold
Claim to fame: Always grabbed the biggest hunks for himself
Tenkaminen exported gold, ivory and salt and then used his wealth to put glass windows in his palace in Kumbi, where he also kept a menagerie of elephants and giraffes. He would wear only silk, and his horses were tethered with gold rings. According to an Islamic traveler, "If gold nuggets are discovered in the country's mines, [Tenkaminen] reserves them for himself and leaves the gold dust for his subjects.... The king is said to possess a nugget as big as a large stone."

Al-Mustansir (1029-1094)

Occupation: Ruler of most of North Africa
Source of wealth: Trade
Assets: Gold, jewels
Claim to fame: Rode under a gold and bejeweled parasol
The wealthiest of the Fatimid caliphs, Al-Mustansir reportedly rode everywhere under a golden parasol encrusted with jewels. Based in Cairo, he ruled most of North Africa and enriched his empire through prosperous Red Sea trade routes. A Persian envoy of the late 1040s was dazzled by the wealth of Cairo under Al-Mustansir's reign, writing, "I could see no limit to its wealth, and nowhere have I beheld such prosperity as I saw there." However, Al-Mustansir's assets weren't safe from plague and famine; in 1070, the caliph had to send the city's women to Baghdad to escape starvation.


Suryavarman II (died around 1150)

Occupation: Khmer ruler
Source of wealth: Import-export
Assets: Gold
Claim to fame: Commissioned Angkor Wat
Suryavarman is responsible for perhaps the largest religious monument in the world -- Angkor Wat, built with stones weighing as much as 8,000 pounds each. When he traveled, the monarch rode in a lion-skin throne atop an elephant with tusks sheathed in gold. Hundreds of young women flanked the carriage, bearing the king's gold and silver plate, spears and shields. Suryavarman traded elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns and kingfisher feathers for gold. The feathers, highly prized in China for bridal attire, may have been the empire's chief source of income.



Enrico Dandolo (1107-1205)

Occupation: Ruler of Venice
Source of wealth: Trade, plundering
Assets: Opulent palazzo
Claim to fame: Financed the "rape of Constantinople"
Claim to fame: Financed the "rape of Constantinople" Dandolo was elected doge of Venice in 1192 at the age of 85. At the time, Venice was the wealthiest city in Europe because it controlled Mediterranean trade. Dandolo, who was blind, spearheaded the Fourth Crusade, funding the army to capture Constantinople from the "infidels." After the "rape of Constantinople," Dandolo pocketed some of the city's riches, shipping valuable marble to his son for the construction of the Palazzo de Dandolo on the Grand Canal. He also stole four bronze horses and placed them over the entry to the Cathedral of San Marco to remind Venetians of his power


Innocent III (1160-1216)

Occupation: Pope
Source of wealth: Taxes
Assets: Cash
Claim to fame: Oversaw the founding of monastic orders known for poverty
As leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Innocent controlled its coffers at the height of its power. The Church squeezed taxes out of its subjects any way it could. And Innocent made himself solely responsible for absolving most sins, charging an indulgence -- a fee in exchange for a pardon. Innocent III oversaw two crusades, further fattening the Church's treasury. As revenue grew, he hired Italian merchant bankers to manage the papal funds. Yet despite his staggering wealth and power, Innocent espoused frugality. One of his enduring achievements was sanctioning the Franciscan and Dominican orders, both known for apostolic poverty.

 

[Ah Guan]

Genghis Khan (1162-1227)

Occupation: Conqueror
Source of wealth: Looting
Assets: Almost five million square miles of land
Claim to fame: Lived to humiliate his enemies
If wealth were measured by lands conquered, Genghis Khan would rank as one of the wealthiest people ever. He began his career by uniting feuding Mongol tribes and then went on to seize almost five million square miles covering what is now China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam, and most of Korea and Russia. Genghis Khan, whose name means "Universal Ruler," conquered as much for the sheer fun of it as for the spoils. He rode a horse and slept in a tent. "The greatest joy," he proclaimed, "is to conquer one's enemies, to pursue them, to seize their property, to see their families in tears, to ride their horses and to possess their daughters and wives."


Kublai Khan (1215-1294)

Occupation: Conqueror and heir
Source of wealth: Inheritance
Assets: Gold and jewels
Claim to fame: Inspired Xanadu
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, failed in military campaigns against Japan, Southeast Asia and Indonesia, but he established the Yuan dynasty in China and built a sumptuous court of gilded cane at Ta-tu (now Beijing). Marco Polo marveled at the jeweled splendor of Kublai Khan's summer palace, Shang-tu -- the inspiration for the "Xanadu" of English poet Coleridge's work. Polo was also amazed by the indulgent feasting and hunting, and by Kublai Khan's ships, which were large enough to carry 1,000 men and "made the passengers feel as if they were on dry land." Kublai Khan zealously promoted paper money, forcing its use under penalty of punishment and confiscating everyone else's gold and silver.


Filippo di Amedeo de Peruzzi (died 1303)

Occupation: Banker
Source of wealth: Sales, money-lending
Assets: Ships, hotels, chapel with Giotto frescoes
Claim to fame: Hitched wagon to wrong star
Leader of one of the first great Florentine banking families, de Peruzzi rose to prominence in 1275 and soon had bank branches in Naples, Paris and London. The Peruzzi clan underwrote business ventures throughout Europe; they also bought wool, spices, jewelry and silk wholesale, and owned ships and hotels from one end of Europe to the other. At their palazzos, they welcomed many monarchs and popes of the time, who came to borrow enormous sums of money. But when Edward III of England defaulted on his debts after losing the Hundred Years' War, the Peruzzis went bankrupt. The victorious king of France exiled them from Florence and confiscated their goods for lending money to the wrong side.


Mansa Musa I (ruled 1307-1337)

Occupation: Ruler of Mali
Source of wealth: Trading gold
Assets: Gold
Claim to fame: Executed people who sneezed in his presence
Although the Mansa claimed his gold grew from the ground like carrots, it most likely came from Africa's Niger, Gambia and Senegal rivers. The Mansa loved to build, and he commissioned grand mosques, paying his architects in gold dust. At his court, he was entertained by poets dressed in thrushes' feathers with wooden heads and red beaks; he sentenced to death those who dressed in sandals or sneezed in his presence. In 1325, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca with 60,000 porters; 80 camels carrying 300 pounds of gold each; and 500 slaves clad in brocade and Persian silk and bearing golden staffs. According to an Arab chronicler, "He appeared amidst his companions magnificently dressed and mounted, and surrounded by more than 10,000 of his subjects."


Jacques Coeur (1395-1456)

Occupation: Financial adviser
Source of wealth: Wheeling-dealing
Assets: Gold
Claim to fame: Put too much faith in a valiant heart
Claim to fame: Put too much faith in a valiant heart Coeur, chief financial adviser to Charles VII of France, ran a variety of businesses -- selling luxury goods like armor and spices, trading salt, and dealing in wheat and wool. Coeur bankrolled Charles's wars with the British, lending him 200,000 ecus -- nearly a ton of gold -- in 1449. He built a Gothic mansion at Bourges with his family motto etched in stone: "To valiant hearts nothing is impossible." But in 1451, rivals charged Coeur with poisoning the king's mistress, Agnes Sorel. Although Sorel had actually died in childbirth, Charles confiscated Coeur's properties and sent him to jail. Coeur escaped, fled to Rome and died several years later fighting the Turks.


Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464)

Occupation: Merchant banker
Source of wealth: Catholic Church
Assets: Gold
Claim to fame: Head of Europe's richest, most powerful family
The Medici family traded wool, silk and other luxury items from Asia; monopolized the alum trade (a fixative for dye); and lent money to popes, monarchs and merchants at hefty interest rates. Their most profitable client was the Church, for which they served as world-wide tithe and tax collectors. But Cosimo de Medici's power ruffled other Florentine families, and in 1431 he was arrested for "having sought to elevate himself higher than others." Using well-placed bribery, de Medici reduced his sentence from execution to banishment. When his absence led to a financial crisis in Florence, however, he was quickly invited back. After de Medici's death, the family fortune was squandered by his son, Piero (1416-1469), nicknamed il Gottoso, or "the Gouty One."


Nyatsimba, Mwene Matapa (late 15th century)

Occupation: Chief of Zimbabwe Empire
Source of wealth: Ravaging, plundering
Assets: Gold, porcelain
Claim to fame: Protected by women warriors
Nyatsimba conquered the middle Zambezi Valley, a land rich in gold, textiles, salt and elephants, and built imposing stone citadels at Great Zimbabwe, the empire's capital. He became known as "Mwene Matapa" or "Monomotapa" ("Lord of the Plundered People" or "Ravager of the Lands"), and true to his title, he plundered (as well as legitimately traded) gold jewelry, jeweled ironwork, enormous copper ingots and even Chinese porcelain brought across the Indian Ocean. The Monomotapa was known to have a corps of more than 100 female bodyguards.


Alexander VI (1431-1503)

Occupation: Pope
Source of wealth: Graft, embezzlement
Assets: Cash, jewels, tapestries
Claim to fame: Possibly history's most corrupt pope
Alexander VI was so profligate that his reign helped inspire the Protestant reformation. A member of the prominent Borgia family of Spain, Alexander was appointed cardinal by his uncle, Pope Calixtus III, in 1456 and went on to amass a fabulous fortune by pocketing church funds. He lived the life of a Renaissance prince, also serving as patron of the arts. After fathering many children, including the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, he was elected pope in 1492. From the papal coffers, he took 100,000 ducats in cash (worth almost 800 pounds of gold) and 75,000 ducats' worth (nearly 600 pounds of gold) of jewels, plate, linen, clothing and tapestries for his daughter's dowry. Alexander's tenure, filled with political and family intrigue, can only be described as Machiavellian; in fact, Machiavelli wrote "The Prince" based on him.


Liu Jin (1452-1510)

Occupation: Court eunuch
Source of wealth: Graft
Assets: Gold and silver
Claim to fame: Inspired morality tales on the danger of greed
A fabulously wealthy court eunuch of China's Ming dynasty, Liu Jin abused his office to amass a great fortune. When he was finally executed for treason, he was found to have 12 million ounces of gold and 259 million ounces of silver. By comparison, the treasury of the imperial palace had only 30 million to 70 million ounces of silver when the dynasty fell. However, reports of Liu Jin's wealth might have been grossly exaggerated, since chroniclers used his story to warn what can happen when an imperial eunuch annoys enough people.


Montezuma II (1466-1520)

Occupation: Aztec emperor
Source of wealth: Taxation
Assets: Food, spices, ornaments
Claim to fame: Was served 300 different kinds of food every day
Montezuma II set up a tribute system in which he ordered his subjects (residents of most of Mexico and Central America) to make annual payments of 140,000 bushels of maize, 105,000 bags of beans, 105,000 sacks of sage, 4,000 blocks of salt and 980 loads of cacao -- plus jade beads, feather war ornaments, exotic bird skins, blocks of amber, jaguar pelts and victims for religious sacrifices. His slaves supposedly served him 300 daily dishes, including stewed turkey, pheasants, quail, wild and domestic duck, venison, fried songbirds and pigeons. Montezuma used his wealth and labor force to build a capital at Tenochtitlan with palaces, pyramids, plazas and a complex system of canals and bridges. Conquistador Castillio described a meeting with the Aztec leader: "The Great Montezuma descended from his litter, and these other great Caciques support him beneath a marvelously rich canopy of green feathers, decorated with gold work, silver, pearls ... . It was a marvelous site."

 

[ahleebabasingaporethief]

Friend, I am definitely in the top 50 in history so don't miss me out ah.

 

[Ah Guan]

Jakob Fugger II (1459-1525)

Occupation: Banker
Source of wealth: Money management
Assets: Mines, silk factories
Claim to fame: Nicknamed "Fugger the Rich"
"The king reigns, but the bank rules!" declared Jakob Fugger II of Augsburg, Germany. He was known as "Fugger the Rich," and minted his own money and maintained banks in every European capital. Fugger and his family also owned silver, gold and copper mines, traded spices and wool, and operated silk factories in Asia. Fugger held the contract for managing the pope's money and collecting cash for the remission of sins, and he bankrolled Charles V's election as Holy Roman Emperor, which involved bribes of sums three times the annual revenue of Florence. Fugger, like other powerful figures at the time, commissioned bronze "portrait medals" of himself -- coins with his own picture on them -- and handed them out to his friends. Fugger was said to have hired a personal fortuneteller to predict the outcomes of his business deals; he died leaving two million guilders, or more than seven tons of gold.


Atahualpa (1502-1533)

Occupation: Emperor of the Incas
Source of wealth: Mining
Assets: Gold and silver
Claim to fame: Filled a room with gold but was decapitated anyway
Atahualpa's empire held a fabled supply of gold and silver, taken from the mines of the Andes. When he was captured by the Spanish conquistador Pizarro, Atahualpa offered to cover the floor of the room in which they were standing with gold, a chamber approximately 17 feet wide by 22 feet long. Receiving no answer, he increased his offer, to fill the room with gold as high as his hands could reach. Pizarro's men drew a line around the room at the height indicated by Atahualpa. They stripped the palace and temples of treasures, household goods and arms, producing about 124 tons of gold and silver, when melted down to bullion and ingots -- the richest ransom ever received. Despite their deal, Pizarro immediately re-arrested Atahualpa on charges of treason to the Spanish crown and decapitated him.


Henry VIII (1491-1547)

Occupation: King of England
Source of wealth: Taxes
Assets: Gold, jewels, baubles
Claim to fame: Never did find the perfect wife
Henry VIII may have been the wealthiest monarch in British history. A 1547 inventory of Henry VIII's property estimated that his jewels, tapestries and palaces were worth about 300,000 British pounds and his military equipment was valued at another 300,000 British pounds, which combined would be roughly the equivalent of $250 million today. By comparison, the annual income of a duke, second in wealth to the king, was about 6,000 British pounds, or $2.5 million in today's dollars. Henry lived an opulent life, eating off gold plate and reading books with nice covers, such as one described in the inventory as "a booke of golde garnyshed with rubies Emerades and Dyamounts." His military collection included handguns, cannons, spears, javelins, cannonballs and arrows. He owned a small gold object with a spatula on one end that is now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It's identified as a "whistell for the tete and eares" -- a combination tooth- and earpick.


Suleiman The Magnificent (1494-1566)

Occupation: Ruler of the Ottoman Empire
Source of wealth: Taxes
Assets: Gold, jeweled crowns
Claim to fame: His harem could accommodate 2,000 women
On Suleiman's mammoth estate were 10 mosques, 14 steam baths and two hospitals. The head cook, with 50 sous-chefs, 30 confectioners and 100 tasters, worked magic with dates, plums and prunes from Egypt, and honey from Romania. One chronicler wrote of Suleiman's palace that "the walls shine and scintillate with an abundance of gold and silver...and with precious stones and marble." At court ceremonies, the sultan sat upon a spacious imperial stool and wore a spectacular gold helmet topped by a plume. His crown boasted 174 gems, including turquoise, rubies, diamonds, pearls and emeralds. Even the sultan's horses were richly attired. As one French visitor marveled: "We did not see a single one of these horses (which numbered about 200) which did not have reins and stirrups of pure gold or silver."


Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579)

Occupation: Merchant prince
Source of wealth: Multiple businesses
Assets: Six estates, cash
Claim to fame: Inspired Gresham's law, an economic observation
Sir Thomas was a British banker, money-changer, textile trader, goldsmith and financial agent of Elizabeth I. He stabilized the English currency and the national debt by advising the queen to re-coin the currency. (Gresham's law, a concept he didn't originate, but employed well, observes that "bad money drives out good." With coins of equal face value, but different metals, the cheaper metal will drive the better out of circulation because people will hoard the precious metal.) He also ran a news service in the Netherlands to keep informed of finance there and in 1658, at his own expense, built the Royal Exchange of London, modeled on the Antwerp commodities exchange. When not trading, Sir Thomas relaxed at one of his six estates in the British countryside. He died one of the richest men of his day, leaving his widow an annual income of almost 2,400 British pounds, a remarkable sum for the 16th century, equivalent to almost $600,000 a year today.

Philip II (1527-1598)

Occupation: King of Spain
Source of wealth: Skimming
Assets: Cash
Claim to fame: His wealth sank with the Armada
Philip II collected one-fifth of all the revenue generated from the mines of the Americas and trade in the Indies. (The rest went to merchants.) He plowed most of the money back into the dynasty. The royal treasury generated about 10 million ducats -- equivalent to more than 34 tons of gold -- a year, but Philip's private expenses measured only about 400,000 ducats -- or 1.4 tons of gold -- a year. Most of Philip's money was invested in the military. After the Armada's disastrous defeat in 1588, Philip went into severe debt, owing creditors more than 85 million ducats -- or almost 300 tons of gold -- at the time of his death.


Shah Abbas (1571-1629)

Occupation: King of the Safavid dynasty in Persia
Source of wealth: Monopoly on silk
Assets: Dazzling city
Claim to fame: His polo fields had marble goal posts
Shah Abbas developed the most splendid city of the age, Isfahan, with a central plaza seven times the size of the Piazza di San Marco in Venice; a breathtaking imperial mosque (constructed so that it could be seen from all over the city) covered by enameled tiles and surrounded by 90-foot walls; 273 public baths; and polo fields with marble goal posts. To finance this, the shah established a monopoly on the production and sale of silk, a shrewd move since Persian silks, unparalleled in their intricacy and colors, were prized by foreign merchants. Persian artistic achievement in carpets, painting and architecture reached a high point during Shah Abbas's reign. But by the end of his life he had grown so fearful of assassination that he turned on his own family, executing one son and blinding two more sons, his father and his brothers.

 

[Ah Guan]

Albrecht Wenzel von Wallenstein (1583-1634)

Occupation: Soldier of fortune
Source of wealth: Profiteering
Assets: Gold, almost all of Bohemia
Claim to fame: Didn't get the severance package he had hoped for
Wallenstein prospered by providing armed regiments to Ferdinand, the Habsburg emperor, during the Thirty Years' War. Born into a minor noble family in Bohemia, Wallenstein was 25 when he married an elderly widow with huge estates in Moravia. Four years later, she died and left him a fortune. From 1618 to 1623, Wallenstein's fellow noblemen tried to depose the emperor, but Wallenstein stayed loyal and was well-compensated when Ferdinand prevailed. Appointed governor of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Wallenstein manipulated the coinage and bought nearly 60 estates owned by defeated noblemen. A few years later, realizing that his soldiers and the emperor were plotting against him, Wallenstein offered to resign in exchange for a considerable severance package. Instead, the emperor ordered Wallenstein murdered in his sleep.

Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680)

Occupation: Louis XIV's treasurer
Source of wealth: Embezzlement
Assets: Fabulous chateau
Claim to fame: Learned the hazards of conspicuous consumption
In 1661, Fouquet invited the young French king, Louis XIV, to a party at his magnificent chateau on the outskirts of Paris, Vaux le Vicomte. Fouquet proudly displayed his grounds (dotted with more than 250 fountains) and treated the king to a play written especially for the occasion by Moliere. Louis XIV was so peeved by the wealth of a nonroyal that several weeks later he ordered his marshals to arrest Fouquet for embezzlement. After the king sentenced Fouquet to prison and confiscated his property, he hired Fouquet's architects and designers to build Versailles.


Yodoya Tatsugoro (died around 1705)

Occupation: Merchant
Source of wealth: Trading in silk, rice
Assets: Farms, gold, luxury goods
Claim to fame: Amassed a fortune so big, it was considered "unbecoming"
The Tatsugoro family of Japan got rich as silk traders and rice agents. Yodoya, a member of the fifth generation of the family, became so wealthy that the austere Shogunate confiscated his fortune in 1705, claiming that it was unbecoming. The truth was, many government officials owed Tatsugoro money -- always a dangerous state of affairs. Tatsugoro's worldly goods at the time of his confiscation included 250 farms and fields; more than 146,000 pounds of gold currency; 583,000 pounds of silver currency; and warehouses of carpets, crystals and other luxury goods.

Aurangzeb (1618-1707)

Occupation: Moghul ruler of India
Source of wealth: Inheritance
Assets: Gold
Claim to fame: Never backed away from a fight
Aurangzeb got the throne the old-fashioned way: He defeated his three brothers and threw his father in jail. Aurangzeb's annual revenue was said to have been more than 10 times that of his contemporary, Louis XIV. In 1676, the price of gold suddenly dropped relative to silver, supposedly because Aurangzeb was spending the family gold to finance military campaigns in western India and Afghanistan. Although the empire reached its greatest size during his reign, Aurangzeb's persecution of Hindu subjects fatally weakened Muslim Moghul control.


Osei Tutu (ruled about 1670-1712)

Occupation: Ruler of the Ashanti Empire in what is now southern Ghana
Source of wealth: Gun running, slave trading
Assets: Opulent court
Claim to fame: Was sheltered by parasols as big as trees
Trading with Europe and Islamic North Africa, Osei Tutu filled the royal chest with more than 400,000 ounces of gold. He instituted gold dust as the official currency, and his authority was symbolized by the Golden Stool, a throne that was said to have descended from the heavens into the king's lap. Osei Tutu also supplied slaves to British and Dutch traders in exchange for firearms. He enjoyed an opulent outdoor court, sheltered under parasols as big as trees, according to accounts of the day, and invited his hundreds of thousands of subjects to an annual yam ceremony


John Law (1671-1729)

Occupation: Financier
Source of wealth: Banks, stocks
Assets: 15 country estates
Claim to fame: Created the "Mississippi Bubble"
At the height of his power, Law had more authority than King Louis XV. He controlled France's foreign trade, mints, revenue, national debt and half of what is now the contiguous U.S. In France, Law owned 15 country estates, most of the undeveloped land around Paris, a library of 50,000 books and millions of shares of securities. A dashing Scotsman, he fled England in 1694 after killing a rival in a duel. He traveled through Europe, playing the casinos and studying finance, and then went to France, where he set up a bank based on paper money and credit instead of gold. He also established the Mississippi Company to exploit the resources of French-controlled territories in America. To sell shares in his company, he hired unemployed men to dress as miners and march through Parisian streets bearing shovels and axes, as if they were on their way to dig for America's great wealth. Investors snapped up the stock and stuffed their money into Law's bank. The shares, issued at 500 livres, rose to 10,000 livres in less than a year. But in 1720, the "Mississippi Bubble" exploded as panicked investors withdrew their shares. Law fled to Venice in disgrace and puttered away his remaining years at the gaming tables.

Sir Robert Clive (1725-1774)

Occupation: Soldier of fortune
Source of wealth: Payoffs for vanquished people
Assets: Cash, jewels, land
Claim to fame: Contender for title of richest man in history
"Clive of India," as he was known, wrested Bengal away from the French on behalf of the British East India Co. in 1757. As payment, Sir Robert exacted from the Moghul ruler, Mir Jafar, a personal cash reward equivalent to more than $140 million in today's dollars, a Moghul title of nobility and the rights to land around Calcutta. Some people believe Sir Robert was the richest man ever, if his wealth is measured relative to the incomes of his contemporaries. He invested in diamonds, which he furtively shipped back to his home country of England for resale, and reinvested in the East India Co. In his two terms as Bengal's governor, he reduced corruption and inefficiency, but when he took his huge fortune home to England in 1767, the government accused him of embezzlement. He was acquitted in 1773. The following year he committed suicide.

 

[Ah Guan]

Richard Arkwright (1732-1792)

Occupation: Inventor and industrialist
Source of wealth: Cotton mills
Assets: Cash, property
Claim to fame: Amassed one of the first factory fortunes
Arkwright invented a water-powered cotton-spinning machine that became the basis for huge cotton mills and eventually the modern factory system. Born in England to a large, poor family, Arkwright trained to be a barber and wig maker, roaming the countryside buying the hair of girls for wigs. By 1782, he had capital of £200,000, or some $17 million in today's dollars, and employed 5,000 workers. Once he got rich, he traveled in style. He "arrived at Derby, accompanied by his javelin men...dressed in the richest liveries ever seen here," a newspaper reported. "The trumpeters were mounted on gray horses and elegantly dressed in scarlet and gold." Although knighted in 1786, Arkwright still strove to overcome his humble origins; starting at age 50, he devoted at least two hours a day to the study of spelling and grammar.


Ho-Shen (1750-1799)

Occupation: Chinese emperor's right-hand man
Source of wealth: Graft, kickbacks
Assets: Gold, silver, furs
Claim to fame: So greedy he stole food from soldiers
Handsome, witty, self-confident and incredibly corrupt, Ho-Shen entered the court of Emperor Kao-tsung in 1772 as a bodyguard but quickly became the aging emperor's confidante. He strengthened those ties by marrying the emperor's youngest and favorite daughter, giving Ho-Shen the power to make or break other officials. Because nobody dared to refuse his demands or bring charges against him, he became fabulously wealthy. Serving as customs superintendent, Ho-Shen had easy access to luxury goods; he also persuaded the increasingly senile emperor to prolong a bloody military campaign, pocketing vast sums allocated to the army while the soldiers starved. When the emperor died in 1799, his heir immediately arrested Ho-Shen and confiscated his silver, gold and precious stones. Ho-Shen, who died in prison, had at least 60 million ounces of silver, 70,000 furs and a gold table service of 4,288 pieces.


Stephen Girard (1750-1831)

Occupation: Banker
Source of wealth: Money-lending
Assets: Millions of dollars
Claim to fame: Richest man in America at the time of his death
Born in France, Girard was a shipper who arrived in Philadelphia in 1776. There he sold his ship and cargo and opened up a small grocery store, earning a small fortune by secretly trading with the British during the Revolutionary War. Using his earnings to start his own bank in 1812, he helped the federal government finance the War of 1812, for a 10% commission. A childless loner (his wife was committed to a mental asylum), Girard lived in a dingy house, kept a cage of singing canaries on his desk and was a die-hard vegetarian. To his contemporaries, Girard seemed like an embittered, crusty miser, but he surprised them by leaving most of his $7.5 million estate to a school for orphaned boys. His fortune, adjusted for inflation, would be worth an estimated $110 million today.


Nathan Rothschild (1777-1836)

Occupation: Banker
Source of wealth: Stock market
Assets: Cash
Claim to fame: Bet on the right side at Waterloo
"Money is the god of our time, and Rothschild is his prophet," wrote the German philosopher Heinrich Heine. Rothschild was the son of Mayer Rothschild (1744-1812), who rose from the ghetto of Frankfurt to become banker to Prince William of Prussia and brought his son into the business. When Napoleon invaded Prussia, the prince sought to get his money out of the country. So he entrusted it to young Nathan Rothschild, then working in London as a banker. Rothschild invested the money in the Napoleonic Wars, smuggling it to Wellington in Spain. Meanwhile, he developed an impressive messenger service of riders, ships and carrier pigeons, and in 1815, he was the first banker to hear the news from Waterloo. Rothschild immediately sold large blocks of stock, convincing other investors -- falsely -- that the British had lost. As prices fell, his agents bought up the stock at rock-bottom prices. From the end of the Napoleonic Wars until his death, the corpulent Rothschild worked in a corner of the London Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, his four brothers established banks in Vienna, Naples and Paris, making the Rothschilds the most powerful financial family in Europe.


Howqua (a.k.a. Wu Bingjian) (1769-1843)

Occupation: Trader
Source of wealth: Import/export, money-lending
Assets: Millions of silver dollars
Claim to fame: Richest businessman in the world in his time
Howqua's father was one of a handful of Chinese merchants permitted to trade silk and porcelain with foreigners. Howqua's family accepted payment only in silver; they didn't see any foreign goods they wanted. In 1789, Howqua took over the business from his father. He lent enormous sums to foreign traders (up to a million silver dollars at a time) in exchange for a share of the shipments. He was also a public benefactor, donating 1.1 million silver dollars toward reparations after the First Opium War. Howqua was so widely known in his time that his portrait still hangs in several Salem, Mass., and Newport, R.I., mansions built by American merchants who traded with him.


John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)

Occupation: Trader
Source of wealth: Furs, real estate
Assets: Land
Claim to fame: Rich but uncouth opportunist
Born a butcher's son in Germany, Astor arrived in New York City at age 20 and got a job with a fur merchant, beating the dust and bugs out of pelts. Gradually he built his own fur-trading business, and also began investing in real estate. By 1820, his American Fur Co. monopolized the fur trade east of the Rockies. In 1834, he tired of fur and focused on real estate. Astor scoured foreclosure notices for bargains and kept his ears open for gossip of landowners in trouble; he bought Aaron Burr's homestead after Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Astor's guiding rule was, "Buy the acre; sell the lot." Despite his wealth, Astor wasn't immediately accepted into New York society. He spoke with a thick German accent, supposedly ate peas with a knife and, on one occasion, wiped his fingers on the sleeves of his dinner hostess. But he married into a prestigious New York family, the Brevoorts, which oiled the social machine. So did the $20 million he left at his death, equivalent to $336 million today.

 

[Ah Guan]

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877)

Occupation: Shipper
Source of wealth: Boats, railroads
Assets: Several homes, a yacht
Claim to fame: Foul-mouthed ferry-boat captain thumbed his nose at the world
Vanderbilt rose from a humble Staten Island farm family to become the wealthiest man of his time. As a teen, he became "the Commodore" while piloting passengers around New York harbor. In 1818, he started running steamships, then a recent invention, between New Jersey and New York. Although New York had granted Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston a monopoly to run the route, Vanderbilt kept ferrying passengers -- with the law in constant pursuit. Vanderbilt also struck his own kind of gold in the gold rush, shuttling prospectors to the West on a new steamship route that included transit across Nicaragua. At age 70, he entered the railroad business, which he soon dominated. He built several stunning homes, including a mansion on Staten Island and a stately townhouse on Washington Place in Manhattan. Vanderbilt commissioned a 270-foot, steam-powered yacht with velvet furniture, 10 staterooms and a marble-walled dining room. His fortune at his death was estimated at $105 million, or some $1.5 billion in today's dollars. But all of Vanderbilt's riches couldn't buy a place for him in elite New York society: He swore constantly, and spat tobacco juice on the carpet.

Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902)

Occupation: Imperialist
Source of wealth: Diamonds
Assets: Political power
Claim to fame: Established scholarships to promote the British Empire
As a teen, the sickly Rhodes was sent from his home in England to South Africa for its climate, and he soon caught "diamond fever." He discovered a vast lode of diamonds at Kimberley and founded De Beers Mining Co. to mine it. Rhodes limited the production of his mine and raised prices; through acquisition, he controlled 90% of the world's diamond supply by 1891. Rhodes didn't live high on the hog for an imperialist; he used his money to extol the virtues of British rule outside Britain. He ran for the Cape Parliament in 1881, was prime minister of the Cape colony from 1890 to 1896, and founded Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), his own colony in Africa, for mineral speculation. He spent heavily on politics, but left enough when he died to endow the Rhodes scholarships with 3 million British pounds, which would translate into roughly $250 million today.


Hetty Green (1835-1916)

Occupation: Investor
Source of wealth: FInancial markets
Assets: Cash, securities
Claim to fame: Known as "The Witch of Wall Street"
Green took an inheritance of nearly $10 million (worth some $185 million in today's dollars) when her ship-owner father died and started investing in the financial markets. She scored her first major success after the Civil War, buying depreciated U.S. government bonds from skittish investors. Her maxim was simple -- "buy cheap and sell dear" -- and she had an instinct for knowing when which was which. When she married a wealthy trader named Edward Green, she insisted on a prenuptial agreement that kept their finances separate. Once again, she proved prophetic: When he went bankrupt 18 years later, Edward listed as his assets "seven dollars and a gold watch." Hetty herself lived in cheap boarding houses in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Hoboken, N.J., and took public transportation to her Wall Street "office" -- the vault of Chemical National Bank. There she sat on the floor, clipping coupons, reading the financial news and listening to loan requests from some of Wall Street's most eminent bankers. Even Green's son suffered from her cheapness. When he injured his knee, Green refused to pay for a doctor and treated the injury herself. Two years later, when her son's knee still hadn't healed, Green dressed him in rags and pretended to be a charity patient. When the doctor learned who she was and demanded payment, she left with the boy. Several years later, his leg had to be amputated. When Green died in 1916, she left some $100 million, equal to about $1.5 billion today.


Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

Occupation: Industrialist
Source of wealth: Steel
Assets: Hundreds of millions of dollars
Claim to fame: Gave most of his money away
Born in Scotland to a poor weaver, Carnegie emigrated to the U.S. in 1848 and worked as a superintendent for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He started investing in iron manufacturing, railroad cars and oil, flourishing industries in the post-Civil War economy. By 1873, he had moved into steel, improving quality and lowering costs. By 1900, his Carnegie Steel Co. produced a quarter of the steel in the U.S. and controlled iron mines, ore ships and railroads. Led by Carnegie, the U.S. surpassed Britain as the world's leading supplier of steel. At the age of 65, Carnegie sold his interests for more than $250 million and retired to his castle in Scotland. He donated $5 million (equivalent to $94 million now) to a pension fund for his workers, and over the next two decades, he gave away an estimated $350 million ($7 billion in today's dollars) which was most of the rest of his money, funding 2,811 public libraries, 7,689 church organs and even a lake designed for rowing, Princeton University's Lake Carnegie. "There is no idol," Carnegie once wrote, "more debasing than the worship of money."


John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)

Occupation: Industrialist
Source of wealth: Oil refining
Assets: $900 million
Claim to fame: Capitalist, robber baron, philanthropist
Rockefeller was born on a farm in upstate New York, and as a boy, he demonstrated an early interest in capitalism, supposedly buying candy in bulk, dividing it into small portions and selling it to his siblings. As a young man, he became interested in the oil boom in nearby Titusville, Pa., but rather than join the cutthroat drillers, he moved into refining, where there were fewer competitors. By 1870 his Standard Oil Co. had gobbled up competitors in the region or price-squeezed them to death. Rockefeller gradually absorbed other competitors, and by the 1880s, his company controlled 95% of the country's refineries. But in 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which led to the breakup of Standard Oil after the turn of the century. Rockefeller's net worth peaked at about $900 million in 1913, or almost $15 billion in today's dollars. Rockefeller's net worth amounted to a staggering 2.5% of gross domestic product at the time, notes Ron Chernow, author of "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller." Unlike other robber barons of the era, Rockefeller didn't flaunt his wealth, although he owned large estates in New York, Florida, Maine, New Jersey and Ohio. His philanthropy totaled more than $500 million ($8.3 billion in today's dollars) and included the founding of the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York.

 

[Ah Guan]

Don Simon Iturbi Patino (1860-1947)

Occupation: Miner
Source of wealth: Tinfoil
Assets: Mansions, cash
Claim to fame: Turneda pickax into a palace
Patino, who was of part Indian descent, was working as a clerk at a mining-supply store in an impoverished Bolivian city when a customer in debt offered to pay off his bill with the deed to an old tin mine. Young Patino took a burro and a pickax to the mountains and eventually discovered he owned the richest tin deposit on earth. After World War I, Patino profited on the sale of almost every product that used tinfoil in the U.S., from gum to cigarettes. His wealth gave him political power, and he served as ambassador to Spain and France. Even so, he was shunned by the Bolivian aristocracy because of his mixed roots, and he and his family moved to France, where they were welcomed by the European elite. He built mansions in Paris and Biarritz; another, in Nice, was described as "hideous beyond belief," with an amphitheater for orchestral recitals, huge parks filled with palm trees and a reconstruction of a Greek temple in ruins. Although he never again lived in Bolivia, Patino built three enormous palaces there "just in case," and was buried in a blue marble tomb high in the mountains of his birth.


Calouste Gulbenkian (1869-1955)

Occupation: Oil man
Source of wealth: Royalties
Assets: Old master paintings, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts
Claim to fame: Nicknamed "Mr. Five Percent"
Son of a Constantinople merchant, Gulbenkian by 1907 had combined Royal Dutch Oil and Shell Oil, emerging with a large block of stock in the greatest petroleum company in the world. Gulbenkian somehow won favor with Sultan Abdul Hamid I ("Abdul the Damned"), the Ottoman tyrant who massacred Armenians but spared Gulbenkian, even allowing him to exploit the rich oil fields of Mesopotamia, now Iraq. After World War I and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, Gulbenkian negotiated an agreement to broker all of the oil Iran sold to the West for a 5% commission. This arrangement gave him his nickname -- "Mr. Five Percent" -- and incalculable wealth in oil royalties. Gulbenkian, a longtime British citizen, supposedly enjoyed a personal "harem" of young women, but his relationship with his son, Nubar, wasn't so enjoyable. Nubar sued his father, claiming his father had promised him a piece of the business. The costly lawsuit was eventually settled out of court. Gulbenkian amassed a collection of old master paintings, as well as Turkish carpets, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and coins, and left a fortune reportedly worth $1 billion, or $6.1 billion today.


Mir Osman Ali Khan ("Nizam of Hyderabad") (1886-1967)

Occupation: Dynastic ruler
Source of wealth: Taxation
Assets: Gold, jewels, soap
Claim to fame: Rats ate his banknotes
The seventh and last ruler of the Sif Jahi dynasty in India, the Nizam ruled Hyderabad, a region larger than England. His reign came to an end in 1948 when India gained independence and forced the princely states to merge with the republic. Considered to be one of the richest men in the world because of his vast reserves of jewels and gold, he led a simple life, wearing tattered clothing and eating his meals in the bazaar. He was a generous philanthropist, donating to hundreds of universities and hospitals regardless of caste and religion, and funding large-scale public-works projects. When he died, investigators found strong rooms filled with bank notes eaten through by rats.


T.V. Soong (1894-1971)

Occupation: Financier, government official
Source of wealth: Banking, fraud
Assets: Blue-chip stocks, cash
Claim to fame: Used Chinese treasury to invest in General Motors Corp.
An official of the Chinese Nationalist Government from 1927 to 1949, Soong was said to be the richest man in the world during the 1940s. If not the wealthiest, he was surely one of the most powerful. The son of a prominent Methodist industrialist, Soong graduated from Harvard University and quickly rose in the financial world as a banker. In 1923, he financed the Nationalist party of Sun Yat-sen, his brother-in-law. Soong established the Central Bank of China, which became the government treasury in 1924 when Soong was appointed the minister of finance. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek -- Sun Yat-sen's rival and Soong's other brother-in-law -- rose to power, and Soong served as his finance minister. He was appointed minister of foreign affairs in 1942, and became a master at mustering Washington's support for China. Using his easy access to the Chinese treasury, he made large personal investments in foreign stock, including holdings in General Motors Corp. and DuPont Co. A wartime dossier on Soong states that he "started out his public career with rather limited resources and [by January 1943] had amassed over $70 million" (worth about $660 million in today's dollars). When the Soviets captured mainland China in 1949, Soong moved to San Francisco, where he kept a lower profile.

 

[Ah Guan]

J. Paul Getty (1892-1976)

Occupation: Oil man
Source of wealth: Drilling
Assets: Faux Roman villa in Malibu
Claim to fame: Had a pay phone for guests
Getty was born into oil money: His father, George, owned a drilling company. J. Paul, who really wanted to be a professor or diplomat, was puttering around the oil fields one day when he hit a gusher on the first hole he drilled ("pure luck," he called it). By age 24, he had made his first million and decided to retire. But after his father had a stroke, Getty went back to business, buying shares of oil stock at Depression-era prices. Twenty years later, Getty controlled an oil empire. A playboy intellectual, with interests in art, literature, historic preservation and night life, Getty lived most of his life abroad (to pay lower taxes). He built a reproduction Roman villa in Malibu, Calif., which critics called the "phony villa," but the house was, and still is, popular with the public. Getty's fortune was between $2 billion and $6 billion (the equivalent of $5.7 billion to $17 billion now), but he was also notoriously cheap. He was said to never leave a meeting first, so he wouldn't have to pay for a taxi, and he kept a pay phone at his London home for his guests' phone calls.


Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei (1946-)

Occupation: Potentate
Source of wealth: Oil, natural gas
Assets: $30 billion
Claim to fame: Big part-thrower
Latest ruling member of one of the world's oldest dynasties, dating back 600 years, the Sultan of Brunei is described on the country's official Web site as a "working monarch" who is "caring and benevolent." He also knows how to have a good time. On his 25th anniversary as sultan in 1992, he rode a gilded chariot pulled by 40 men through his nation's capital. In 1996, the sultan celebrated his 50th birthday with monthlong festivities for the entire nation. The present he gave his subjects on his birthday last year: a salary increase of up to 14% for all public employees (80% of all Brunei workers). The sultan can afford it. Though his realm is tiny -- the Southeast Asian nation is about the size of Delaware and has a population of just 280,000 -- it enjoys vast reserves of oil and natural gas.

Bill Gates (1955-)

Occupation: Software executive
Source of wealth: Microsoft stock
Assets: $75 billion
Claim to fame: Richest-ever college dropout
He is both the most admired and despised executive of his era. A geeky kid, Gates worked as a programmer from age 13 and co-founded Microsoft Corp. at age 20 with boyhood pal Paul Allen after dropping out of Harvard. Microsoft took off when International Business Machines Corp. chose the fledgling company's operating system, MS-DOS, to run its PCs. Ruthlessly competitive, Gates since has moved Microsoft into every PC software nook, squeezing out smaller rivals and drawing the ire of antitrust regulators. Gates has spent lavishly building a mansion and snapping up electronic rights to art masterpieces, but also recently donated $100 million for immunization programs for children in developing countries.

 

[Ah Guan]

Friend, I am definitely in the top 50 in history so don't miss me out ah.

Aiyah... This list was complied around 2000... Must wait 991 years for the millenium special edition WSJ.

What's your source of wealth btw? Found the thieves secret cave?

 

[po2wq]

so ... which 1 is world lumpar 1? ...

 

[Angelo]

makapa will tell u the answer

 

[makapaaa]

 

[wendypoh]

Source of wealth: Sacking, plundering, Land confiscation, Looting

What a way to get wealthy

 

[wendypoh]

Occupation: Chinese emperor's right-hand man
Source of wealth: Graft, kickbacks

Chinese are nothing but corrupt beings