The current richest people in the word, like Elon  Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, all have fortunes  

worth well over 100 billion dollars. And yet,  if we account for inflation, their wealth is not  

even close to making them the richest people  ever. So today, we’re delving into the past  

to explore the richest people in history, and  how they made their unthinkably large fortunes.

And we start with #1: John D. Rockefeller,  the oil magnate that’s widely considered  

the richest American of all time, with an  approximate net worth of around 400 billion  

dollars in today’s money, even after giving  a substantial amount of his fortune away.

And yet, he started from very humble beginnings.  He was born into a large family, with a father  

who was frequently absent and was regarded  as a con-man who sold worthless potions. So,  

from a young age, John needed to help  provide for the family, and took on odd jobs,  

like looking after the neighbours  turkeys, or selling potatoes and candy.

Even though these things didn’t pay  a lot, John was really good at them  

and worked hard, and so he was able to save  enough money to start offering small loans  

to other people. So even as a young boy  that entrepreneurial instinct was there.

But when he turned 16 he dropped out of school and  got his first real job as a book-keeper, earning  

just 50 cents a day. However, after working there  for around 2 years, his employers still refused to  

give him a meaningful raise, and so he decided  to start his own produce business, as he had  

a goal to make $100,000, and knew he’d need to  build something of his own to reach that target.

Luckily, that first job had already taught him  a lot, and gave him the experience, connections  

and reputation, to raise $4,000 for starting his  own venture; a business selling goods like meat,  

hay and grain. Which did well, in the first  year of trading it made almost half a million  

dollars - of course Rockefeller didn’t keep all of  that, a lot of it went back into business expenses  

and loans, but it meant when a big opportunity  arose, he now had some real money to invest.

And that opportunity, was oil. In 1859,  the first American oil well was discovered,  

which began the Pennsylvania oil rush. However,  Rockefeller realised that whilst most people  

were trying to get rich from drilling oil, the  bigger profits were actually in oil refinery. So,  

at just 24 years old, he used the money from  his first business to build an oil refinery.

Now, around this time he met a man named  Henry Flagler who was interested in  

investing in his business, and so together  they incorporated the Standard Oil Company,  

and began the process of buying out all the  smaller nearby oil refineries that were in  

competition with them. Whenever any of these  refineries refused to sell their oil to him,  

he simply started selling his oil at a loss so  that their customers flocked to him instead,  

which would put these smaller  companies out of business.

These kind of practices allowed  the Standard Oil company  

to keep expanding across the entire country - they  kept buying out rivals, undercutting competitors,  

and cutting costs wherever possible. The more  they grew, the more negotiating power they had,  

so they could push for better rates and prices  and discounts on everything. Rockefeller was also  

known for some shady secret deals, and so with  all of these factors combined, by the 1870’s,  

Rockefeller's oil company owned 90%  of the world's oil refining industry.

He also hired the owners of the oil refineries he  bought as a board of trustees, which meant that  

all the smartest oil experts were all working  within one super company, with Rockefeller at  

the head of it. He owned 20,000 oil wells, had  over 100,000 employees, and at the vert peak,  

some estimate its total value would today  have been worth almost a trillion dollars.

This kind of empire was pretty unheard  of, but Rockefeller wasn’t done yet.

At this point, the two biggest industries were  oil and railroads, so Rockefeller set out to do  

a similar thing he’d just done with oil, with  railroads. However, as he begun monopolizing  

another industry, he also began to become a bit  of a public enemy. He was depicted as the ultimate  

symbol of corporate greed and cruelty. In response  to Rockefeller’s ever-growing empire, legislation  

was passed to try and prevent these kind of  monopolies; in particular, The Sherman Anti-trust  

act was passed, which would lead to the breakup  of Standard Oil into different subsidiaries.  

Except, over time many of these subsidiaries would  simply merge back together, and are still around  

to this today - such as BP and Chevron. And,  since Rockefeller kept his share in all of those  

companies even after they got split up, it meant  that at the time of his death, he was still the  

richest person in the world, and likely the  richest self-made man in all of modern history.

Now, what should we actually  think about John D Rockefeller?

On the one hand, he made oil an affordable  commodity, and brought it to the masses. He  

went from nothing to building a business  empire that may never be matched again.  

He gave around $540 million to charitable courses,  

which when you adjust for inflation, makes him  one of the most accomplished philanthropists ever.

However, on the other hand, Rockefeller was  a greedy, ruthless tyrant of business, who  

sometimes bullied, extorted and exploited others  on his merciless path to dominance, especially  

the tactics used to crush the competition.  Biographer Ron Chernow argues ‘his good side was  

every bit as good as his bad side was bad. Seldom  has history produced such a contradictory figure.’

However what’s undeniable, is  he will always be remembered  

for his insanely vast fortune  and the impact he had.

  

But wait. We now need to travel back  in time even further, to someone who  

was arguably much richer than Rockefeller,  and yet many people have never heard of him.

However, quick side note before that:  the further back in history we go,  

the harder it is to definitively rank wealth.  When we’re talking about modern history,  

it’s a lot easier - for example we can  say with a good level of certainty that:

Andrew Carnegie had an empire worth around 310  billion dollars, as he founded the Carnegie  

Steel Company, which later became U.S Steel,  the first billion dollar company in the world.

We also know for sure that Henry Ford had an  empire worth around $200 billion dollars when he  

died in 1947, as he founded Ford Motor company  and pioneered assembly line mass production.

And so with businessmen like that it’s  much easier to calculate their wealth; but  

once we start talking about the value of owning  countries and land, things get a little blurrier.

Even in present day, some people would  disagree with the the Forbes rich list  

that puts Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos  as the richest people in the world.  

Its been argued that someone like Vladirmir Putin  may be the real wealthiest person alive today,  

it’s just it’s difficult to  verify exactly what he owns.

So bearing all that in mind, let’s go back  to our list of the richest people in history,  

and venture all the way back to the  14th century, where we find Mansa Musa,  

considered by many historians as the  richest person human to ever live.

  Mansa Musa ruled the Mali empire in  

Africa for 25 years, which was extremely rich in  salt and gold. In fact, some sources estimate they  

were the largest gold producer in the world, and  had more than half of the world's total supply.

And so Mansa spent the early part of  his reign expanding Mali’s trade routes,  

which allowed them to trade their gold  and salt all across Africa and Asia.

Under his leadership, the Mali empire tripled  in size - he conquered 24 major cities, 

and it’s believed he never lost a battle in his  lifetime. However, Mansa also got many territories  

to join the Mali empire willingly, due to the  relatively high quality of life its citizens had.

However, Mansa wasn’t content with  that - he wanted to truly put the Mali  

empire on the map to the whole world. Now,  since he was a devoutly religious Muslim,  

he had already planned to  go on a pilgrimage to Mecca,  

and then he realised he could use this trip as as  an opportunity to capture the world’s attention.

And thus in 1324, he began the most  extravagant pilgrimage in human history.

The voyage, which would span an estimated 4,000  miles, was travelled by Mansa Musa with tens of  

thousands of soldiers, slaves and heralds,  draped in Persian silk and carrying golden  

staffs. One account estimated up to 60,000  people travelled with him, each carrying  

up to hundreds of pounds of gold. It’s fair  to say it was a spectacle that got noticed.

But Mansa also gave away huge amounts of gold  to the poor he met along his route, and it was  

reported he built a Mosque every Friday. Having  said that, his generosity somewhat backfired,  

as it’s also claimed that he spent so  much gold on souvenirs during his journey,  

that he destabilized the local  economy and caused mass inflation,  

since these territories had never had so much gold  before, and he was handing it out so freely. And,  

if you really think about that, it  highlights how absurdly rich Mansa Musa was:  

that he essentially caused a financial  crisis by spending too much on his travels.

When he finally returned from his pilgrimage, the  Mali empire had annexed Timbuktu under his orders,  

and he established it as the epicentre for  commerce in the region. He had also brought back  

with him scholars and architects, who helped him  build schools and mosques. Mansa even established  

the first major university in the region, which  could take up to 25,000 students, and had one of  

the largest libraries in the world. All of these  different building projects further elevated the  

city’s reputation, and helped attract even more  top scholars from all over Africa and beyond.

And therefore, many historians credit  Mansa with leading the Mali Empire  

to even greater prosperity and development.

However, whilst Musa did indeed put the Mali  empire on the map like he wanted, it didn’t quite  

have the intended consequences. As news of their  huge wealth and gold supplies made its way to  

Europe, several European powers saw an opportunity  to conquer the empire and take the resources for  

themselves. But, by that point Mansa would have  died, and already cemented himself in history  

as one of the richest people to ever live. Now, as for how rich he was, some estimates put  

Mansa’s modern day wealth equivalent at between  400-500 billion dollars - but remember it is  

extremely difficult to accurately compare today’s  money, with a fortune that was built on salt,  

gold and territory. So, I guess you could say,  take this estimate with a very big pinch of salt.

However, because historians can’t  quite agree on how to compare wealth  

from so many centuries ago, that means the  title of the richest person ever is still up  

for debate - so let’s finish this video with 3  very honourable mentions who may be contenders:

One person that could have been the richest in  history, is Ghenghis Khan. The fearsome Mongol  

leader conquered a mind-blowing 12 million square  miles of land between 1206 and his death in 1227,  

more than anyone else in history. As he  conquered all of these different kingdoms,  

he also took their wealth and possessions,  which combined with the value of the land  

he took, would arguably have been worth  trillions of dollars - or in other words  

incomprehensibly large amounts  that is difficult to even quantify.  

It’s an extremely brutal way to build your  fortune, but it was certainly effective.

Another candidate for the richest person  in history is Jakob Fugger, also known as  

Jakob Fugger the Rich - and you don’t get a name  like that without having a pretty giant fortune.  

In fact, if you took Europe’s entire economic  output at the time Jakob was alive, he owned 2.2%  

of all of that. Of the entire continent! Jakob was  the 10th of 11 children, but would go on to become  

a banker who financed kings, explorers, and  religious leaders - what’s crucial here though,  

is that before Fugger came along, Christians  could not legally charge interest on loans, but  

he managed to convince the Pope to change this,  and then profited from the rule change immensely.  

In a biography written about him, the author  explains that Fugger just seemed to have a gift  

for making money and spotting opportunities,  especially when it came to business and  

investments. For example, when the Archduke  of Austria desperately needed a loan,  

Fugger decided to offer it when no other banker  would. And it paid off big time. He also had a  

great talent for convincing other people to  lend him money so that he could invest it,  

and turn it into a much bigger profit. He  was undeniably very strategic and shrewd,  

and built a fortune that would today be  worth an estimated $400 billion dollars.

But, now it’s time for one final candidate  for the richest people ever, Caesar Augustus,  

the first Roman emperor, reigning from 27  BC until his death in 14 AD. Time Magazine  

once estimated his equivalent  net worth today as being "$4.6  

trillion" because he "personally owned all of  Egypt". But again, going back this far in time,  

it’s virtually impossible to put  an accurate number on his wealth.

say that all of these names mentioned in this  video had obscene levels of wealth, and were  

amongst the wealthiest humans to ever live, with  fortunes far bigger than Jeff Bezos or Elon musk…  

at least, for now. Of course both of these men are  still working and growing their business empires,  

so if either of them have some  more major breakthroughs, like  

colonising Mars, then who knows  how vast their fortunes may become.

But, now a question for you: what are your  thoughts on all of these incredibly wealthy  

historical figures? I know that for some people,  hearing about wealth can be kind of motivating,  

whereas for other people, it  can just seem really unfair. 

But if you do feel that way, then it’s worth  remembering that the fact you have access  

to antibiotics, electricity, internet  and so on - means that in many ways,  

your quality of life is greater  than some of the richest kings,  

emperors and business magnates in  history that we’ve just heard about.

After all, you can do something that Rockefeller,  Mansa Musa, and all the others never could.

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But, before you click away, I will  leave you with one final thought.  

If you do want to start building an empire of your  own, the internet genuinely has made it possible  

for anyone to start a business and build wealth.  Literally anyone can get started from their laptop  

with virtually no startup costs. And so if  that’s something you are interested in yourself,  

just click the top link in the description of  this video to see how youtube can enable you to  

do that, just like its done for me. I really think  it’s a great opportunity, so just click that link  

below for all the details you need. Thanks for  watching, and I’ll see you next time. Cheers.