5 historical figures who were simply obscenely rich

In general, finding out who is the richest person in world history is very difficult, if not impossible. Scientists calculate the fortunes of the wealthy of the past, converting the value of their property into gold, and then compare the resulting figures with the current value of this metal.

The problem is that over the centuries the price of gold itself has constantly changed, and even it cannot serve as a reliable measure of wealth. Not to mention the change in the purchasing power of money and the emergence of more and more new currencies.

Therefore, to say for sure "this padishah has a bigger score than that emperor!" will not work: no historians will be able to find accurateG. Jenner. Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen numbers. But you can still make a rough list of the rich. These are the proud guys who deserve to press the regulars at the top of the Forbes rating.

1. William I the Conqueror

This Norman king, affectionately called the Bastard by his foreign French partners, distinguished himselfD. C. Douglas. William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact Upon England / University of California Press the fact that he captured all of England and united it under his rule.

The occupation, however, only benefited the country: William I the Conqueror founded a unified government, built the Tower and a bunch of other fortresses, laid a normal army and the navy - in general, made the power great. But the main achievement of this fellow was that he conducted the first land census in England in order to understand what was happening in the territories under his control.

The collection of materials on the census of land and property, carried out in 1085-1086 by order of the king, bears the terrifying title "The Book of the Last Judgment."

A rather harsh title for a publication that prescribesD. Bates. A Bibliography of Domesday Book, to whom where to plow and in which lakes it is forbidden to fish. This document allowed the king to collect taxes more efficiently.

In addition to this, His Majesty acquired enormous wealth through the issuance of a special decreeHigh house prices? Inequality? I blame the Normans / The Guardian. According to him, all the lands in England now belonged to the monarch, and all sorts of dukes, earls and barons, not to mention commoners, are just tenants. This provided a constant flow of money into the treasury and the discontent of taxpayers, but who listens to them at all?

Historian William Rubinstein has calculatedP. Beresford, W. D. Rubinstein. The Richest of the Rich: The Wealthiest 250 People in Britain since 1066that the inheritance that the ruler left to his sons Robert and Wilhelm, in terms of current money, is equivalent to $ 209 billion.

2. Atahualpa

Rich guys met not only in Europe, but also in America. And the most wealthy Native American can be safely called Atahualpa - the last emperor incas. True, even approximately to estimate how rich he was, it will not work, because the local tribes did not have the concept of a market and money, and the exchange of goods was carried out through barter.

From the point of view of the Incas, their entire country, property in it and people belonged to the emperor, and there was simply nothing in the Andes that he did not own.

However, about the stateFrancisco Pizarro traps Incan emperor Atahualpa / History Atahualpa, one can get an idea of ​​how he provided ransom to the Spaniards who took him prisoner. The emperor was defeated at the Battle of Cajamarca and was captured by the famous conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

Finding himself in captivity, Atahualpa was not taken aback. And when Pizarro entered the room where the emperor was kept in chains, he declaredKuprienko S. A. Sources of the XVI-XVII centuries on the history of the Incas: chronicles, documents, letters: for my release, I will fill this room with gold to the ceiling.

The conquistador hesitated in surprise. Atahualpa, taking his silence for a refusal, added: if this is not enough, then that room can be filled with silver in the same way. The Spanish conquistador stepped back from the shock and noticed that the neighboring room of that one would be smaller. Atahualpa immediately retorted - and then we will fill it with silver, clear it, and then repeat it once more. Walk like that. At this point, Pizarro agreed to the deal.

True, after receiving the ransom, Atahualpa was still killed out of harm's way. But 6 tons of gold and 12 tons of silver from his ransom, plus another 500 tons of gold and 3,915 silver, exported by the Spaniards from enslaved empire of the Incas, provoked in Spain monstrous inflation, the collapse of money circulation and degradation economy. A crisis lasted almost 200 years.

Although Atahualpa's gold did not help him, it still got into the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ransomGreatest kidnap ransom ever / Guinness World Recordsever paid for a kidnapped person.

3. Jacob Fugger

All the persons listed in this list are all sorts of kings and emperors who owned entire countries. Jacob Fugger did not have his own state, but he could easily buy one for himself if he wanted to. But he didn't need it - and so all the mighty of this world were in Fugger's pocket.

This 16th-century banker and investor in Augsburg, Germany, distinguished himself by granting loans to monarchs and popes. He made a fortune5 Things to Know about the Richest Person in History / Medievalists on the textile trade with Italy, but later switched to the mining industry, producing mercury and silver.

Fugger made his wealth through good investment control. He was one of the first in Europe to use double-entry bookkeeping.

Fugger received the ore mines as followsG. Steinmetz. The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. We take the Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol (one piece). We give him a loan (150,000 florins) for endless wars, payment for mercenaries, maintenance of illegitimate children and mistresses.

In return, we get the "temporary" right to dispose of the ducal mines in Tyrol, Carinthia and Hungary and pump out as much wealth from there as we can. Then we repeat about the same with Emperor Maximillian I. Then - with Charles V of Habsburg.

In general, distributing loans and receiving various profitable industries in return, Jacob became a monopoly miner. He controlled ore mines throughout Europe and levied debt on the most influential nobles of the time. Why did these rich guys prefer to live on credit, obediently giving their mines to the banker for indefinite use? Well, they just didn't count very well, unlike Fugger.

By the way, Jacob, despite his banking acumen, was also a rather devout Catholic. To focus on business and not worry once again about saving the soul, he acted in a rather original way.Die Fuggerei / Fugger.

The banker built an entire block with 52 houses for the poor and settled the poor there - one of the first social housing projects in history, by the way. Tenants paid a nominal fee of one guilder - 0.88 euros at current ratesAfter Almost 500 Years, the World's Oldest Social Housing Complex Is Still Going Strong / Smithsonian Magazine - but were obliged to pray three times a day for Fugger and his family.

4. Musa I

Musa I was a Mansa (that is, the supreme ruler) of the medieval African state of Mali. He ruled from 1312 to 1337. Under him, the empire reached the peak of its power.

Famous for his excessive extravaganceM. A. Gomez. African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa / Princeton University Press. As a Muslim, Musa was obliged to perform the Hajj to Mecca. And he did it, and on a grand scale. On the pilgrimage, the Mansa was accompanied by 60 thousand servants and soldiers, lines of slaves and a caravan of 80 camels, each of which carried up to 136 kilograms of gold on a hump. Musa distributed all this goodness to the counter and cross to show how rich and faithful he is.

Such generosity sparked inflation and a decade-long financial crisis in Cairo, Medina and Mecca.

In general, the Mali mansa spent 18 tons of gold during the hajj, boasting that it grows on trees in his kingdom. EncouragedIs Mansa Musa the richest man who ever lived? / BBC News development of sciences and arts, founded a library in the city of Timbuktu, the capital of the empire of Mali.

Musa also built a new mosque every Friday. Why pray in the old one, after all, it's been worth a whole week.

5. Octavian August

Octavian - Roman the emperor, who was the great-nephew of Julius Caesar. He united Rome, captured Egypt, Judea, Galatia and Spain, brought order to the country and concentrated in his hands all the breadth and fullness of state power - of course, for the good of society.

This fellow created a cult of personality named after himself and even renamed the month of August in his honor, which was originally called "sextile".

Octavian can be safely called the main contender for the title of the richest man in the world, because he, for a second, owned the Roman Empire, which at that time controlledThe most powerful economic empires of all time / Fortune from 25 to 30% of the entire world economy.

According to Stanford historian Ian Morris, August at some point possessed wealth equivalent toI. Morris. The measure of civilization one-fifth of the resources of your entire empire. In addition, he inherited the province of Gaul from Julius Caesar as his personal property, and he also owned Egypt. The whole.