10 Richest People Who Ever Lived

2. Andrew Carnegie - £231bn ($348bn)

Andrew Carnegie is the prime example of a "rags to riches" story - having emigrated from Scotland with his poor parents to the USA during the 1840s. Starting work life as a telegrapher, Carnegie quickly built up investments in railroads, train sleeper cars, bridges and oil derricks - before he founded Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company, which he eventually sold to JP Morgan for $480million ($13.6billion in 2015 terms) in 1901. Carnegie used a large portion of his £231billion ($348billion) wealth to fund charitable causes including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

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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.