10 Richest People Of All Time

4. John D. Rockefeller ~ $336 Billion

Richest Men Augustus Caesar
By Puck (magazine). [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

America's two wealthiest men couldn't have had more different motivations. Whilst Andrew Carnegie learned the value of hard graft as a consequence of his parsimonious upbringing, John D. Rockefeller's pursuit of fortune began with the questionable morals of his con-artist father, who vowed "to cheat my boys every chance I get" in an effort to make them business savvy.

As a teenage bookkeeper growing up in Ohio, the thought of charity never entered the youngster's mind. He had precisely two overblown ambitions: to live to 100, and to earn $100,000.

Rockefeller hit the first milestone and then some, with his Standard Oil Company founded in 1870 expanding to control over 90% of the US oil business, giving him an accumulated wealth of approximately $336 billion.

Carnegie wryly quipped that "the man who dies rich dies disgraced." His rival on the rich list had other ideas, with the bulk of his titanic estate passing into his family's hands upon his death in 1937. He missed out on his second goal by three years though, popping his clogs at 97. What a loser.

Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.