{"id":318340,"date":"2019-05-25T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=318340"},"modified":"2019-05-24T15:20:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T13:20:41","slug":"the-wealthiest-people-alive-today-vs-the-richest-people-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/318340\/the-wealthiest-people-alive-today-vs-the-richest-people-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The wealthiest people alive today vs the richest people in history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Bezos, the world\u2019s richest man, is worth $117 billion. L\u2019Or\u00e9al SA heiress Fran\u00e7oise Bettencourt Meyers, the richest woman, has $54 billion. But how do their fortunes compare with those of past plutocrats?<\/p>\n<p>There are those who could claim to be richer. John D. Rockefeller made about $1.5 billion in his career, according to his 1937 New York Times obit\u2014about $26 billion in today\u2019s dollars.<\/p>\n<p>A better comparison, says Samuel Williamson, an economist who runs measuringworth.com, might be \u201crelative output,\u201d the ratio of wealth to gross domestic product.<\/p>\n<p>Rockefeller\u2019s $1.5 billion was about 1.6% of the economy in 1937. Were he to own the same percentage today, his fortune would be almost triple Bezos\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what some of history\u2019s richest people at the height of their wealth might be worth now using this approach.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$331 billion<\/strong> &#8211; John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937): Oil magnate usually considered the world\u2019s first billionaire;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$321 billion<\/strong> &#8211; Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919): Sold his steel company to J.P. Morgan for $480 million in 1901;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$238 billion<\/strong> &#8211; Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877): Shipping and railroad tycoon who built Grand Central Terminal;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$213 billion<\/strong> &#8211; Bill Gates (b. 1955): Microsoft Corp. co-founder whose foundation alone has a $51 billion endowment;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$210 billion<\/strong> &#8211; Marcus Licinius Crassus (c. 115 B.C.-53 B.C.): Roman politician-general beat back Spartacus\u2019 slave revolt;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$203 billion<\/strong> &#8211; Alan the Red (c. 1040-1093): William the Conqueror\u2019s cousin held much land after the Norman Conquest;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$169 billion<\/strong> &#8211; John Jacob Astor (1763-1848): Merchant who invested in New York real estate;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$93 billion <\/strong>&#8211; Warren Buffett (b. 1930): Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman known for frugality (by billionaire standards);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$53 billion<\/strong> &#8211; John Spencer (d. 1610): Merchant who traded with Spain and Turkey and became lord mayor of London;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$41 billion<\/strong> &#8211; James Brydges (1673-1744): Became the first nonlanded British millionaire in the South Sea Bubble;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$25 billion<\/strong> &#8211; Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1122-1204): The queen consort and duchess owned vast European estates;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>$28 billion<\/strong> &#8211; Gaius Appuleius Diocles (b. 104): The charioteer\u2019s winnings could\u2019ve provided grain for Rome for a year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/317994\/these-world-cities-pay-the-highest-salaries-including-joburg-and-cape-town\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">These world cities pay the highest salaries including Joburg and Cape Town<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Bezos, the world\u2019s richest man, is worth $117 billion. L\u2019Or\u00e9al SA heiress Fran\u00e7oise Bettencourt Meyers, the richest woman, has $54 billion. But how do their fortunes compare with those of past plutocrats?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":45185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-318340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318340"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319182,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318340\/revisions\/319182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}