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Ranked: the richest historical figures of all time

Meet the richest historical figures who ever lived
John Jacob Astor – peak net worth: $150 billion (£112bn)
Cornelius Vanderbilt – peak net worth: $185 billion (£140bn)
Henry Ford – peak net worth: $200 billion (£150bn)
Alan Rufus, 1st Lord of Richmond – peak net worth: $223 billion (£168bn)
William the Conqueror – peak net worth: $230 billion (£173bn)
Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII – peak net worth: $230 billion (£165bn)
Heshen: peak net worth: $270 billion (£203bn)
Muammar Gaddafi – peak net worth: $280 billion (£211bn)
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia – peak net worth: $348 billion (£261bn)
Andrew Carnegie – peak net worth: $375 billion (£281bn)
John D. Rockefeller – peak net worth: $400 billion (£300bn)
Jakob Fugger – peak net worth: $531 billion (£399bn)
Mansa Musa I of Mali – peak net worth: $548 billion (£417bn)
King Solomon of Israel – peak net worth: at least a trillion dollars (£750bn)
Augustus Caesar – peak net worth: $4.6 trillion (£3.4tn)
Akbar I – peak net worth: $27 trillion (£20.1tn)
Emperor Shenzong of Song – peak net worth: $30 trillion+ (£22.5tn+)
Genghis Khan – peak net worth: $150 trillion+ (£112tn+)
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Slavko Sereda/Shutterstock

Muammar Gaddafi – peak net worth: $280 billion (£211bn)

In 2011, Libyan officials estimated that deposed leader Colonel Gaddafi had hidden away a fortune of $200 billion in secret bank accounts, shady investments and dubious real estate deals during his dictatorship, stolen from the country's massive oil revenues.

Adjusted for inflation, that's the equivalent of around $280 billion (£211bn) today.

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Alice Cattley

24 September 2024

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