A Story of Trillionaires, Empires & The Richest Man Ever

Question: Who was the richest person to ever live? Literally the richest man in the world ever?! The richest person in history?

Well, the richest man in history (or the richest man to ever live) is actually an ongoing debate, because calculating who was the richest man of all time isn’t easy. Some people disagree about who the richest man of all time is. So this documentary on the richest people in history will look at several candidates for the richest person in history.

Based on the data available about the richest person in history, I’ve compiled this list to try and answer who could have been the richest man ever. But if you have some other suggestions of who the richest person ever actually was; please comment below.

MagnatesMedia makes mini-documentaries on business, wealth & more - and lots of new videos are on the way. This channel was formerly called John Frazer - Young Magnates, but switched to MagnatesMedia to reflect the more professional documentary style (partially inspired by James Jani).

Who is the richest person ever? Well, the current richest people in the word, like Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos, all have fortunes worth well over 100 billion dollars. And yet, if we account for inflation, their wealth isn't close to making them the richest people ever. So today, we’re delving into the past to explore the richest people in history, & how they made their unthinkably large fortunes.

And our first candidate for the richest man in history is 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. And yet, he started from 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 need to help provide for the family, and took on odd jobs...

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, whilst Rockefeller was incredibly wealthy, who was the richest person ever if we adjust for inflation?

Quick note about the richest people of all time: 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. Although that's not enough to make him the richest man in history!

We'll then continue our list of the richest people ever, by delving into the life Mansa Musa, who some argue was the richest man in the world ever. We'll first ask what was Mansa Musa net worth, and then the story of Mansa Musa.

We'll then travel back in time further to explore the lives of some of the other richest people of all time. I hope you find the lives of the richest people of all time as interesting as I did. (The All Time Rich list).