![\"Genghis\"](\"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Genghis.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n10. Genghis Khan<\/strong><\/p>\n Lived: 1162-1227<\/p>\n Country: Mongolian Empire<\/p>\n Wealth: Lots of land, not much else<\/p>\n Genghis Khan is undoubtedly one of the most successful military leaders of all time. As leader of the Mongol Empire, which at its height stretched from China to Europe, he controlled the largest contiguous empire in history. However, despite his great power, scholars say Genghis never hoarded his wealth. On the contrary, the Khan\u2019s generosity was key to his influence.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the basis of his success is sharing the spoils with his soldiers and other commanders,\u201d says Morris Rossabi, a distinguished professor of history at CUNY\u2019s Queens College.<\/p>\n Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, explains that Mongol soldiers, unlike many pre-modern armies, were banned from taking personal loot. After an area was conquered, every item taken was inventoried by official clerks and then later distributed amongst the military and their families.<\/p>\n Genghis still received a share of the spoils, but that hardly made him rich. \u201cHe built no palace for himself or family, no temple, no tomb, and not even a house,\u201d says Weatherford. \u201cHe was born in a wool ger [yurt] and he died in a wool ger. At death he was wrapped in felt, like any common person, and then buried. \u201d<\/p>\n Lived: 1955-present<\/p>\n Country: United States<\/p>\n Wealth: $78.9 billion<\/p>\n As the richest living person, Bill Gates\u2019 wealth is refreshingly easy to determine. As of this year, Forbes estimates the Microsoft founder\u2019s net worth at $78.9 billion. That\u2019s about $8 billion more than Zara co-founder Amancio Ortega, the second-richest person in the world.<\/p>\n Lived: 1040\u20131093<\/p>\n Country: England<\/p>\n Wealth: $194 billion<\/p>\n The nephew of William the Conqueror, Rufus joined his uncle in the Norman conquest. He died with \u00a311,000, according to Philip Beresford and Bill Rubinstein, authors of The Richest of the Rich, which they say amounted to 7% of England\u2019s GDP at the time. That would amount to $194 billion in 2014 dollars.<\/p>\n Lived: 1839\u20131937<\/p>\n Country: United States<\/p>\n Wealth: $341 billion<\/p>\n Rockefeller began investing in the petroleum industry in 1863 and by 1880 his Standard Oil company controlled 90% of American oil production.<\/p>\n According to his New York Times obituary, Rockefeller was valued at about $1.5 billion based on a 1918 federal income tax return and estimates of his overall fortune\u2014the equivalent of almost 2% of U.S. economic output that year according to data compiled by MeasuringWorth (the U.S. did not keep official records on national income until 1932).<\/p>\n The same economic share in 2014 would be equivalent to $341 billion.<\/p>\n Lived: 1835\u20131919<\/p>\n Country: United States<\/p>\n Wealth: $372 billion<\/p>\n Rockefeller gets all the press, but Andrew Carnegie may be the richest American of all time. The Scottish immigrant sold his company, U.S. Steel, to J.P. Morgan for $480 million in 1901. That sum equates to about slightly over 2.1% of U.S. GDP at the name, giving Carnegie economic power equivalent to $372 billion in 2014.<\/p>\n Lived: 1878\u20131953<\/p>\n Country: USSR<\/p>\n Wealth: Complete control of a nation with 9.6% of global GDP<\/p>\n Stalin is an uncommon figure in modern economic history: a dictator with absolute power who also controlled one of the largest economies in the world. While it is virtually impossible to separate Stalin\u2019s wealth from the wealth of the Soviet Union, his unique combination of economic might and complete control of the USSR lead multiple economists to nominate him as one of the richest people of all time.<\/p>\n You can easily see their logic. Data from the OECD shows that in 1950, three years before Stalin\u2019s death, the USSR made up roughly 9.5% of global economic output. As of 2014, that level of production would be equivalent to nearly $7.5 trillion dollars.<\/p>\n While that money didn\u2019t belong directly to Stalin, he had the ability to leverage Soviet economic might for any reason he chose.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had enormous power, and through his power he could have anything he wanted,\u201d says George O. Liber, a professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. \u201cHe controlled 1\/6th of the land surface of the planet without any checks or balances.\u201d<\/p>\n Does that make Stalin rich in the traditional sense? Liber isn\u2019t so sure. \u201cWas he among the wealthiest men?\u201d the professor wonders. \u201cI suppose if you want to stretch the definition of wealth, but it was not his wealth. He controlled the wealth of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, it\u2019s hard not to include Stalin on a list of the most economically powerful people in history. His wealth might be uncertain, but there\u2019s no question the premier\u2019s personal economic influence is unrivaled in recent history.<\/p>\n Lived: 1542\u20131605<\/p>\n Country: India<\/p>\n Wealth: Ruled empire with 25% of global GDP<\/p>\n The greatest emperor of India\u2019s Mughal dynasty, Akbar controlled an empire that accounted for about one-fourth of global economic output. Fortune\u2019s Chris Matthews cites the late economic historian Angus Maddison, who speculates India\u2019s GDP per capita under Akbar was comparable to Elizabethan England, but with \u201ca ruling class whose extravagant lifestyle surpassed that of the European society.\u201d<\/p>\n That assertion that India\u2019s elite class was wealthier than their counterparts to the west is backed up by data from economist Branko Milanovic, whose research shows the Mughal Dynasty was one of the most effective empires of all time at extracting wealth from the population.<\/p>\n Lived: 1048\u20131085<\/p>\n Country: China<\/p>\n Wealth: Ruled empire with 25% to 30% of global GDP<\/p>\n China\u2019s Song Dynasty (960 \u2013 1279) was one of the most economically powerful empires of all time. According to Prof. Ronald A. Edwards, a Chinese economic historian of the Song Dynasty at Tamkang University, the nation accounted for between 25% and 30% of the world\u2019s economic output during its peak.<\/p>\n The empire\u2019s wealth came from both its technological innovations and extreme skill at tax collection, which Edwards says was hundreds of years ahead of European governments. The professor also noted the Song Dynasty\u2019s government was highly centralized, meaning the emperor held enormous control over the economy.<\/p>\n 2. Augustus Caesar<\/strong><\/p>\n Lived: 63 BC\u201314 AD<\/p>\n Country: Rome<\/p>\n Wealth: $4.6 trillion<\/p>\n Not only was Augustus Caesar in charge of an empire that accounted for 25% to 30% of the world\u2019s economic output, but according to Stanford history professor Ian Morris, Augustus at one point held personal wealth equivalent to one-fifth of his empire\u2019s economy. That fortune would be the equivalent of about $4.6 trillion in 2014. \u201cFor a while,\u201d Morris adds, Augustus \u201cpersonally owned all of Egypt.\u201d That\u2019s hard to top.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n9. Bill Gates<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n8. Alan Rufus (a.k.a. Alan the Red)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n7. John D. Rockefeller<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n6. Andrew Carnegie<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n5. Joseph Stalin<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n4. Akbar I<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n3. Emperor Shenzong<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n