When you take a look at these people who were the richest in the world ever, it will change the picture of wealth on earth. The richest people in our time do not even make the top 10 of the richest people who ever lived on earth in the history of mankind.
Take a look with us at this list of very rich people who had too much wealth to spend in even a dozen lifetimes. The great thing about this is that that wealth outlived all of them, so let’s see who those people were and how they did it.
Mansa Musa 1
All historians agree that this man was the richest person in the written history of men who lived in the early 14th century. He was at that time the 10th Emperor of the Malian Empire.
It is necessary to mention those who were royalty or rulers of countries, they are in the position to accumulate a lot of wealth.
In this time of the middle ages, he was known as the Lord of the mines and owned more than half of the gold in the world. He made his vast fortune from the exports of gold and salt to the world.
He also ruled over more than 400 cities. They estimated the net worth of this devoted Muslim to around 400 billion dollars if compared to today’s money.
John D. Rockefeller
This American businessman is considered the wealthiest American who ever lived and tops the second position of richest person ever.
Rockefeller’s company, Standard Oil, controlled more than 90% of all US oil. His net worth was estimated at 340 billion dollars in today’s money at the time of his death in 1937 at the age of 97.
Even though he retired at the young age of around 57 it did not make a difference to his overall fortune. He made his fortune from the time when he had a monopoly in the oil industry in the US.
He co-started the oil company… and to think he started out at the age of 16 as an assistant bookkeeper and had several partnerships in the oil industry at a young age.
Andrew Carnegie
During the 19th century, Andrew Carnegie had a steel company, the Carnegie Steel Company, and was considered the lord of the steel industry.
Carnegie made his wealth of 310 billion dollars from this steel company. That is what he was worth in his life while he was the lead industrialist in the steel industry until the day he died in 1919.
At 13, he worked for $1.20 per week in the textile industry before starting his first company. In the last 18 years of his life, he gave away around $5 billion to charities, Universities, and foundations.
In 1889 he wrote an article, ‘The Gospel of Wealth”, where he proclaimed that the rich should use their wealth to improve society. He was even richer than Rockefeller for a few years.
Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov
Also known as Nickolas ll of Russia, he ruled as the Emperor of Russia since November 1894 and was also the last Tsar of Russia. He was worth more than 300 billion dollars in today’s money.
He was also known as Saint Nikolai, the Passion-Bearer in the Russian Orthodox Church of that time and the last Monarch of Russia. The first general strike of the Russian revolution was in 1917.
It forced him to abdicate the throne while he was away on a mission with loyal troops. It all ended when the Bolshevik revolution claimed his life and that of his entire family.
He was blamed for many of the things that went wrong in Russia. Many say that his great wealth was exaggerated, but he still was very wealthy by the time of his death.
Mir Osman Ali Khan
This billionaire was also known as his exalted highness and was the last ruler of the largest princely state of British India, Hyderabad. He ascended the throne at the age of 25 as recently as 1911.
This is yet another royalty that had a vast wealth of more than 230 billion dollars in today’s value and was the richest Indian of all time. Ali Khan was known by all as a very generous king.
He valued education highly among his fellow countrymen and also supported the Allies with aircraft during the World War. He did not get his wealth from being royalty.
He also owned a diamond mine which made him very rich. When he died in 1967, he was one of the richest people in the world and still holds that position.
William the Conqueror
William 1, also known as William the Bastard was the first Norman Monarch of England and ruled from 1066 to 1087. He was also the Duke of Normandy from 1035 until his death.
At the age of 8, he assumed the throne of his father, Robert, the Duke of Normandy, who was on a pilgrimage at the time of his death.
When William 1 died, he was worth nearly 230 billion dollars in today’s money and left all that to his sons. With the victory of the war of Hastings, he became known as the Conqueror.
He held that title for all his remaining days. Becoming the ruler of England made him very wealthy, and he ruled for more than 21 years.
Muammar Gaddafi
Most people in this modern age know about Gaddafi and his controversial rule over Libya for more than 42 years, making him a billionaire. He provided free amenities to the people of his country.
He is also responsible for the 8th wonder in the world – the construction of the largest irrigation system in Libya. This project was funded by his government and took more than 24 years to complete.
By the time of his death Gaddafi, also known in the early years as Colonel Gaddafi, had a net worth of 200 billion dollars cash and assets to his personal wealth.
He also was the co-founder of the African Union and was very much interested in Africa becoming one country to be ruled by one ruler only.
Henry Ford
With the founding of the well-known company, the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford industrialized the assembly line for mass production. This made him wealthy with a net worth of 199 billion dollars.
That was what he was worth by the time of his death, and that was just one billion short of 200 billion dollars, which may sound a lot to ordinary people.
This assembly line for mass production is the reason why everyone can afford to own an automobile, and that was his dream.
The franchise system was the reason there were Ford dealerships countrywide and on 6 other continents. All this made Ford very rich and placed him in a top spot on the richest people ever list.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt made his fortune in the railroad and shipping industry when it was a very quick expanding industry in its early years. He invested in this industry which left him with 185 billion dollars.
Vanderbilt also constructed and was the owner of different railroads in Manhattan as well as in the New York areas. He supplied ships for the American Civil War in the early 19th century.
He was fondly known as the Commodore, while some of the ships were donations to the war effort. He also sold many ships during the Civil War.
This provided him with some of the great wealth he made in his life. This was another of those American businessmen who made use of the great opportunities when it came his way.
Allan Rufus
Rufus was the first Lord of Richmond and the Count of Brittanny and joined William the Conqueror in his war effort to claim the English Throne. For this, he received property grants from the new king.
If he did not join the Conqueror, he might not have received all the property from William and might not have been that rich in the end. This was a decision he did not regret.
All the properties he received provided him with a net worth of more than 178 billion dollars in today’s money. He was the Baron of Richmond castle and owned Cambridgeshire.
This was just some of the many properties he had. This Breton nobleman chose his friends well and knew on whose side he should be for his own good.
Jeff Bezos
Finally, we have a rich person from our own time and he is the billionaire owner of the Amazon company. We all know how Jeff Bezos made his vast fortune and can be admired while he is still alive.
With an estimated 177 billion dollars net worth, he comes in at the 11th position and may still move higher if his fortune grows even larger.
Jeff also dethroned big names such as Bill Gates and other billionaires around the world to be the current number one in the world.
The interesting part of this is that Jeff is not even close to the number one richest person of all time. Is it possible that there might be someone in the near future that can be even richer than Bezos?
William de Warenne
This is another Norman noblemen who joined William the Conqueror during the battle of Hastings to conquer England. The land grants that were given to him made him very rich.
Because of his loyalty, he accumulated a considerable wealth of more than 147 billion dollars net worth in today’s money, making him rich and famous beyond dreams.
William and his wife Gundred founded the first monastery in England, the Lewis Priory, on his property in Sussex. They were both buried on this land upon their deaths.
At the time of the Domesday survey, it was found that he owns many properties over 13 counties to add to his wealth. William was also the first Earl of Surrey.
Summary
After taking a closer look, it is quite surprising that even the richest people in our time do not even come close to the richest of all time.
These are only a few people we know about; what about those who lived even earlier than these people, like Solomon from the Bible?