10 Richest People Of All Time
3. Musa I Of Mali ~ $400 Billion
Such was the frankly ridiculous extent of Mansa Musa's colossal wealth that it's difficult to put a precise figure on it. As the ruler of the Malian Empire, Musa had access to over half of the world's gold supplies - by some happy coincidence, at a time during the 14th century when the precious metal was enjoying its highest demand. He was so rich that nobody could quite comprehend it; his golden estate looked like it'd been ran ramshackle by a drunk Midas.
Devout Muslim Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 proliferated scarcely believable tales of his infinite pockets. Witnesses reported a procession comprising 60,000 men elaborately dressed in Persian brocade and silk, including 12,000 slaves bearing 4lbs of gold each. They steered a mammoth menagerie, including 80 camels each bearing up to 300lbs of gold dust. The aureate-laden cortège wasn't simply for show; Musa handed out lumps of gold to the impoverished on his journey, stopping every Friday to build a mosque.
The King of Timbuktu's generosity was so lavish that his pilgrimage crippled the Mediterranean economy for the next decade. The abrupt, absurd influx of affluence into the Mesopotamian cities of Medina, Cairo and Mecca drastically lowered the value of gold - a situation only rectified when Musa himself borrowed as much of it as possible on his way back home.