Think about your fortune; now think of Cristiano Ronaldo; now think about Elon Musk. Have you thought? So know that none of them (not even yours) come close to the greatest fortune that ever existed.
A few days ago we told the story of the Chinese man, the richest person in the world in the first half of the 19th century, who lent money to American millionaires.
But who was the richest man ever to face Earth?
Mansa Musa – the king who ruled the Mali Empire in the 14th century – occupies the absolute first place in ranking of the greatest fortunes of history.
“Imagine the maximum amount of gold a human could have and double it,” history professor Rudolph Ware of the University of Michigan told the magazine.
As the magazine explains, Musa Keita I came to power in 1312. When he took control of the empire, he gained the title “Mansa” (meaning king).
Mansa Musa was responsible for the expansion of the empire’s wealth, which was mainly concentrated in the gold and no sal – highly valued at the time.
At its height, the empire covered the territory of present-day Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Mauritania, on the western coast of Africa.
Map of Musa Keita’s Empire
“Infinite gold”
Manda Musa’s fortune comes from the amount of gold existing in that region, which is impossible to measure – one of the reasons why it is said that the Malian king had “infinite gold”.
“One of the reasons”, because it is not just an expression. Economists and historians have never reached a consensus on fortune. They just know that, spent, “at will”, the trillions of dollars.
In 2015, Money magazine created a list of the richest people of all time. Musa came – without any doubt – in first place. The magazine summarized the Malian king’s fortune as “bigger than anyone will ever be able to describe”.
In 1324, Musa made a long journey to Mecca, sparing no expense. During this trip, Musa stopped in Cairo, the capital of Egyptand decided to do a simple act of charity: only gold.
However, he left so much metal there that . It took 12 years for the local economy to recover.
The emperor died in 1337, after 25 years in power, leaving behind schools, mosques, libraries and museums. As Super Interessante writes, the mosque in Djinguereberfor example, still exists today in Timbuktuin Mali, and can be visited.
His figure was so striking that, in 1375, it was illustrated in , one of the main references in the study of the medieval period.
