Mansa Musa is said to have been the richest man in human history, possessing in the 14th century AD what could today be considered at least $400 billion, and that’s just a lower estimate. Basically, he was richer than Elon Musk.
He was the king of the Mali Empire, located in an area that produced HALF of all gold worldwide.
As a devout Muslim, he later took a pilgrimage to Mecca and was reported to be rather generous on his journey. The man was so absurdly rich that his donations would CAUSE LOCAL ECONOMIES TO HYPERINFLATE BECAUSE OF THE DEVALUATION OF GOLD!
You can read more about him.
Point is, what are yall’s thoughts on the richest man in history that got rich by being the lucky king of the biggest producer of gold in the world.
I think it’s similar contradiction beween money and resources that we observe in capitalism some time between financialised renter states and industrial ones.
Really richest man back then was most probably Yuan emperor Wenzhong, by the sheer virtue of how much actual resources he (at least nominally) controlled.