10 Richest People Who Ever Lived

These people could literally drown in a pool of their own money...

One thing which everyone is fascinated by is wealth. Everyone wants to know how much something or someone is worth, and who is the richest person on Earth right now. Well, the richest person on Earths according to Forbes' rich list is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates - who is worth £53billion ($79billion) - but being wealthy is not just a modern-day phenomenon. In fact, Gates' current worth of£53billion would not even get to him close to the list of the top-10 richest people in history. Money has been a fascination throughout human history - with King Croesus of Lydia in 550 BC being so wealthy that his name became a synonym for being rich, while King Solomon (970-931 BC) was a man of such extraordinary worth that he is the protagonist of several stories in the Bible. But that then begs the question - who is the wealthiest person in the whole of human history? Now this is something that is almost impossible to determine and there is therefore no exact science to it. To work out exactly how much certain historical people had money and assets-wise, then to convert that into modern-day figures is difficult - but an effort has been made. Assets, money and general wealth of key historical figures have been calculated and then adjusted for modern-day inflationary terms and values, creating a top 10 listed in Sterling and then dollars. So, here are the top-10 wealthiest people to have ever lived - and their combined wealth is a staggering £1.8trillion ($2.7trillion)...

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Bill Gates
 
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NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.