- Oh hey there, you look well.
Is that a new haircut?
Okay, first off I know what you're thinking.
Oh, this list is gonna be predictable.
Bring on Bill Gates.
But actually, you're going to be quite surprised
because the people on this list
are not who you think.
In fact, they're so rich they even bumped Bill Gates,
Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos,
and Mark Zuckerberg off of the list.
If you've ever wondered what it's like
to have unlimited money,
well, you're about to find out.
Adjusted for inflation, of course.
Here are the 10 richest people of all time.
Number 10 is Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Anderson Cooper's great great great grandfather,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, made his 185 billion dollar fortune
in shipping and railroads.
His beginnings were humble,
assisting his father ferrying commuters
from Staten Island to Manhattan before he,
himself, became a captain.
Eventually owning his own steamboat,
the ambitious commodore apprenticed in
and then cornered the New York steam ship industry
with fleets of ships moving people and cargo.
Then he pivoted to transporting goods
to and from the 1850s California gold rush.
Vanderbilt went all in on the future,
the railroad, building his own tracks,
establishing timetables and procedures,
and connecting the ever expanding United States.
This first American tycoon paved the way
for future American industrialists
that you're about to hear of.
And, in case you're wondering,
yep, $185 billion is the lowest on this list.
Yeah, you might want to sit down for this
'cause it gets crazy.
Number nine is Henry Ford.
Henry Ford didn't invent the car or the assembly line
but by combining the two he made cars affordable
and revolutionized the automobile industry.
And in doing so, he made himself
what would be $199 billion today.
He learned about gas engines working with Thomas Edison
and launched two car companies that eventually went bankrupt
proving that if at first you don't succeed,
try, try again, because, as it turns out,
his third venture was the Ford Motor Company
on June 16, 1903.
Ford was a smashing success who pioneered
the five day workweek and paying high wages
to low skilled workers that made Detroit, Michigan
the American city.
Or at least it used to be.
Things clearly changed.
Eminem will tell you.
But Ford soon had competition from General Motors
and Chrysler while the rest of the world
adopted his assembly line methods
that spawned a mass migration to cities
and expanded the middle class.
It's because of him that we're not all riding horses
around everywhere which is a really good thing
because, have you ever seen a horse poop on the road?
It's not a small amount.
Number eight is Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was a colorful tyrant
who helped himself to $200 billion of Libya's oil revenues.
He seized power from King Idris on September 1, 1969
and abolished the monarchy,
renegotiated the oil contracts with foreign companies,
and promoted himself to Colonel because, why not?
He ruled based on his own green book philosophy
that basically blended communism and capitalism
that really just handed power
over to his family and friends.
Communism and capitalism.
Everybody wins.
Also my family is in charge.
Nobody challenge me.
Gaddafi went from revolutionary hero
to cruel dictator who crushed dissonants
through jail, torture, executions, and disappearances
and also sponsored terrorism as a hobby.
But Gaddafi's downfall was the Arab Spring
that ultimately led to his violent death
on October 20, 2011.
See, just goes to show you you shouldn't be a bad person
because if somebody wants you dead,
they gonna find a way.
Doesn't matter if have $200 billion.
They'll find a way to get ya (chuckles).
Number seven is Jakob Fugger.
Goldman Sachs has nothing on German Jakob Fugger,
the world's first capitalist,
who made money for money's sake.
The equivalent of a 221 billion dollar fortune.
By the time he died in 1525,
he was worth the equivalent of almost 2%
of the entire European economy!
Fugger was the first documented millionaire
and modernized banking through balance sheets,
risk assessment, and leveraging information
via couriers a half decade before the first newspaper.
He took calculated risks loaning large sums of money
to powerful people like land barons, kings,
and was even called the Pope's banker,
convincing Pope Leo to absolve the sin
of tacking on interest to loans.
Hey Pope, what's happening?
Listen, I know that interest is a sin
but, you know, we can work something out?
You know what I'm saying?
It's not a sin, no more?
Slip a little your way.
Know what I'm saying?
Fugger's loans helped fight wars, launch Protestantism,
and even funded Magellan's exploration of the globe.
Talk about venture capitalism.
Number six is William the Conqueror.
William the Conqueror led a Game of Thrones life
before leaving $229.5 billion today
to his sons in 1087, including Henry I,
the future king of England.
In 1035, his father died on a Jerusalem pilgrimage
so he became Duke of Normandy France at just eight years old
when a civil war broke out.
Civil war at eight?
I think I was worried about pogs at eight.
As you could imagine,
William barely survived childhood
but went on to become a ruthless leader,
making key alliances and gave refuge to childless
King Edward of England who promised him the throne
after he died.
Edward's chief counsel, Harold,
usurped the crown so William went
to war with the Pope's blessing
and crushed Harold at the Battle of Hastings.
William legitimized himself as King of England
with the domesday book that transferred Anglo Saxon
elite's land as well as holdings
to the Normans, including all those cool castles.
You know, $230 billion, that's not so bad,
but hopefully he didn't actually live
a Game of Thrones lifestyle
because if you seen the show,
there's some weird stuff that happens.
Number five is Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII.
His exalted highness was the final ruler of Hyderabad
and was the richest man in the world in the 1930s and '40s
and worth as much as 2% of the entire American economy
at two billion dollars which is about 230 billion today.
He was so rich that he used the world famous Jacob diamond,
worth almost $150 million, as a paperweight.
Ah yes, it's twinkly and diamondy.
Let's hold some paper down with it.
Beloved by his people, he spent almost 10%
of Hyderabad's annual budget on education,
science, and development providing free primary education
to the poor, that was until India invaded
and annexed his land on September 18, 1948.
He was something of a family man
with seven wives and 34 children
as well as countless mistresses and bastards
who collectively depleted his fortune
after his death on February 24, 1967.
Well, that's all well and good
but the real question is, who got that paperweight diamond?
I mean, you know, if no one's using it.
Just pass it my way.
Number four is Tzar Nicholas II.
Nicolai Alexandervich Romanov amassed a $300 billion fortune
through the time honored tradition
of royal kleptocracy as the last Russian emperor
before Vladimir Lennon's Bolshevik Revolution
launched the Soviet Union.
His main council was the mystic rascal, Rasputin,
which led to some serious blunders
including antisemitic massacres,
violent suppression, widespread famine,
and a failed war against Japan
and committing Russia to World War I
that led to the deaths of 3.3 million people.
Sadly, Tzar Nicholas and his wife and five children
were the last of the Romanovs
as they were gruesomely murdered by the Bolsheviks.
On the plus side, Nicholas was canonized
as the wealthiest saint in the Russian Orthodox Church
and his murdered family declared martyrs.
300 billion in life and then you become a saint.
Not a bad deal.
Number three is Andrew Carnegie.
Andrew Carnegie is the ultimate
American rags to riches story
from Scottish immigrant teen making two dollars in 1848
to a man worth the equivalent of 310 billion dollars today.
You see this?
That's just a dollar.
But one day it could be a billion
so I'm a just hold onto that.
He started working in a textile mill,
became a telegraph messenger,
and got his break assisting Thomas Scott,
superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
At just 20 years old,
Carnegie mortgaged his mother's house
to make savvy investments in Adam's Company,
the Fed Ex of his day, and by 30 he had investments
in iron works, steamers, railroads, and oil wells.
Andrew Carnegie became obscenely rich in the steel business
with his Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
based Carnegie Steel Company
that he later sold to JP Morgan in 1901
for 480 million dollars.
And he spent the rest of his life just giving his money away
founding organizations, universities, and concert halls
with his name on them.
Yeah, that's good but, like, I have a YouTube channel
with my name on it so take that.
Number two is John D. Rockefeller.
John D. Rockefeller was the richest American in history
and its greatest philanthropist
who gave away most of his wealth
that would have been worth $340 billion today.
Rockefeller began as a bookkeeper at 16
and became a wholesale grocer
but his true calling was the oil business
where he aggressively grew Standard Oil,
often buying smaller innovative companies
until he controlled 90% of the US market.
You want some oil?
Come this way.
In 1911, the US Supreme Court declared
that Standard Oil was a monopoly
under the Sherman Antitrust Act,
forcing Rockefeller to break it apart
and sell, doubling his fortune overnight.
British Petroleum, Exxon, Conoco Phillips,
and Chevron are all subsidiaries
of what was once Standard Oil.
His two great ambitions were to make $100,000
and die at the age of 100.
Well, he actually died at 97 on May 23, 1937
and, um, yeah, made a little bit more than $100,000.
And number one is Mansa Musa.
Mansa Musa was the king of Timbuktu
in what is now Mali in Africa
and was the richest man to ever walk the earth
although he preferred riding camels laden with gold.
His fortune would have been worth a staggering $400 billion
in today's money which, to put that into perspective,
is richer than Bill Gates, Warren Buffet,
Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg combined.
Crowned in 1312, he mined half of the world's production
of gold back when Medieval Europe was impoverished
from plagues and war.
Musa used his wealth to expand
his empire 3,219 kilometers throughout Africa.
He was also a generous and devout Muslim
who built mosques, schools, and universities.
Some of which still stand.
He also caused massive inflation from gold donations
wherever he went.
Imagine being that rich that you can just,
like, throw pieces of gold.
Everybody's winning.
So that was the 10 richest people of all time,
adjusted for inflation.
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Thank you guys for watching
and I'll see you on the flippity flop.
I'm a take this with me.
Okay, goodbye now.