You may have heard millions and billions quite often. Have you ever thought about trillions? Becoming a trillionaire is no easy job. Having this much money is equivalent to unbelievable amount of wealth. A trillion is such a huge number, followed by twelve zeros. That is one thousand times a billion (nine zeros followed by 1).

Do you know that only 6 trillionaires ever lived on the face of earth? As of today, there are no trillionaires who live on earth. It is definitely not Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. Such extreme wealth we dont see in our lifetime. Believe it or not it is an unbelievable wealth. In the past Kings had that much wealth. Most of these wealth came from earth’s resources rich in minerals, the riches in earth is only declining as years pass by.

Today’s billionaires own only a fraction of wealth when compared to trillion and many are already old. It would take another century to produce a trillionaire and another thousand years to produce a quadrillionaire (1000 times a trillionaire)

These are the only 6 trillionaires who lived on earth from history who reached the pinnacle of wealth .  These were only kings with incomprehensible wealth measuring in trillions, who acquired wealth through large conquests, taxes and from earth’s abundant natural resources. Sadly earth’s riches are only depleting.

1. Genghis Khan

• 1206–1227
• King of Mongol Empire
• Estimated wealth: $100+ trillion

Genghis Khan one of the most fearsome conquerors of all time, and by the end of his life the Mongol Empire occupied a vast empire from Central Asia to China. Much of the wealth came from plunders, taxes and control of caravan routes along the Silk Road and provide the Mongols with valuable revenue. He owned 270,000 horses and precious stones diamonds worth $1 trillion and gold deposits weighing in at a whopping 2 million tons totaling $11 trillion alone. Unlike other emperors Khan never spent vast riches builting temples or tombs, went to a undiscovered grave.

2. Zhao Xu

• 1048–1085
• Emperor Shenzong of Song in China)
• Estimated wealth: $30 trillion

Zhau Xu was the sixth emperor of the Song dynasty in China. His original personal name was Zhao Zhongzhen but he changed it to “Zhao Xu” after his coronation. He reigned from 1067 until his death in 1085. The enormous wealth came from technology innovations and efficient reform in collecting taxes. The Song dynasty was the first to use gun powder and first to introduce paper money during the 11th century. The emperor supported modern welfare state in well being of their citizens. The Emperor Shenzong died in 1085 at the age of 36 from an unspecified illness and was succeeded by his son, Zhao Xu

3. Akbar, The Great

• 1542–1605
• Emperor of India’s Mughal dynasty
• Estimated wealth: $21 trillion

The Indian emperor conquered hundreds of thousands of square miles of territory and ruled over much of the Indian subcontinent, known as the Mughal Empire from 1556 until 1605. He controlled around 25% of the world’s GDP at the time, which would translate to a staggering $21 trillion today. The Mughals lived in luxury rivalled only the Bourbons of France, the Hapsburg of Austria, the Romanov’s of Russia and the emperors of China. So impressed were the British by the wealth of the Mughals, the word “Mughal” entered the English language as a term to describe an all-powerful ruler of industry, films or other endeavour. Some historians even say, Mughals had a GDP per capita, compared to Elizabeth of England The seat of power of the Mughal empire was the “Peacock Throne.” It had in it background an image of a peacock with an expanded tail wrought in gold and precious stones. A gold divan surmounted by bejewelled peacocks was the symbol of Mughal power and wealth. During Akbar’s period military  innovations in cannons, fortifications, and the use of elephants were introduced.

4. Amenhotep III

• 1388–1351 BC
• Pharaoh of Egypt
• Estimated wealth: $4–6 trillion

5. Augustus Caesar

• 63 BC-14 AD
• Roman emperor
• Estimated wealth: $4.6 trillion

The Roman emperor controlled vast stretches of land throughout the Roman empire controlling many states. His personal fortune was equivalent to 20% of the entire empire’s economy. Caesars wealth peaked when he owned Egypt as part of his personal private property. During his period, Egypt contributed 25-30% of GDP and had some of the best agricultural land.

6. King Solomon

• 970–931 BCE
• King of Israel
• Estimated: $2.2 trillion

King Solomon’s riches came from taxation, trade and tributes. According to the Bible, King Solomon during his rule he is said to have received 25 tons of gold for each of the 39 years of his reign. In a single year, according to 1 Kings 10:14, Solomon collected tribute amounting to 666 talents(18,125 kilograms) of gold. Solomon is described as surrounding himself with all the luxuries and the grandeur of an Eastern monarch, and his government prospered. The Hebrew Bible credits him as the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem, using the vast wealth he and his father had accumulated. He dedicated the King Solomon’s temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

7. Mansa Mousa

• 1280–1337
• King of the Mali empire and Timbuktu in Africa
• Total wealth: $0.5 trillion – $1 trillion
  

Mansa Musa was the emperor and sultan of Malian Empire consisted of territory formerly belonging to the Ghana Empire in present-day southern Mauritania and in Mali and the immediate surrounding areas. His lands had vast gold deposits during his reign, gold was in substantial demand and Mali may have been the largest producer of gold in the world bringing him immeasurable wealth.

The story of Musa’s Gold pilgrimage have been told for ages.

Musa embarked on a pilgrimage to Meccah between 1324 and 1325, taking with him 60,000 men, all wearing brocade and Persian silk, 12,000 slaves, who each carried 1.8 kg (4 lb) of gold bars, and heralds dressed in silks, who bore gold staffs, organized horses, and handled bags and 80 camels which each carried 23–136 kg (50–300 lb) of gold dust. Musa provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals. Musa gave the gold to the poor he met along his route. Musa not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also traded gold for souvenirs.  Musa’s generous actions inadvertently devastated the economies of the regions through which he passed. In the cities of Cairo, Medina, and Mecca, the sudden influx of gold devalued the metal for the next decade. Prices on goods and wares greatly inflated. To rectify the gold market, on his way back from Mecca, Musa borrowed all the gold he could carry from money-lenders in Cairo at high interest. This is the only time recorded in history that one man directly controlled the price of gold in the Mediterranean. News of the Malian empire’s city of wealth even traveled across the Mediterranean to southern Europe, where traders from Venice, Granada, and Genoa added Timbuktu to their maps to trade manufactured goods for gold. Timbuktu soon became a center of trade, culture, and Islam.  Today, Musa’s palace has since vanished, the university (Sankore) and mosque still stand in Timbuktu today.

Measuring Wealth in Trillions

Take look below, the wealth owned by top billionaires of all times whose wealth measured in trillions.

• Jakob Fugger — $0.4 trillion
• Rothschilds – $0.4 trillion
• Rockefeller — $0.35 trillion
• Andrew Carnegie — $0.30 trillion
• Nicholas Romanov — $0.30 trillion
• William de Warenne — $0.22 trillion
• Osman Ali Khan — $0.23 trillion
• Henry Ford — $0.20 trillion
• Gaddafi — $0.20 trillion
• Jeff Bezos — $0.17 trillion
• Elon Musk — $0.20 trillion
• Bill Gates — $0.14 trillion
• Donald Trump – $0.003 trillion

Modern day billionaires have a long way to go to hit the trillion figure. They have to push the limits and keep working hard. They also have to live long enough to become a trillionaire. With much earth’s vast natural wealth fast declining, riches in space exploration will create the next living trillionaire.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUuSbVGgamM

Richest Royals

The Royal wealth has declined considerably during the modern times. These numbers just not enough to be measured in trillions. This is a list of richest royals, as estimated by the CEOWORLD magazine in 2019 and Business Insider in 2018, by their personal net worth, excluding properties held by the state, government or Crown, in U.S. dollars.

• Vajiralongkorn — King of Thailand$43 billion — $30 billion
• Hassanal Bolkiah — Sultan of Brunei — $28 billion — $20 billion
• Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — King of Saudi Arabia $18 billion
• Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan — President of the United Arab Emirates
  Emir of Abu Dhabi $15.0 billion
• Mohammed VI — King of Morocco $8.2 billion — $2.1 billion
• Hans Adam II — Prince of Liechtenstein $7.2 billion — $3.5 billion
• Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum — Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Emir Sheikh of Dubai$4 billion
• Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg — Grand Duke of Luxembourg $4 billion
• Juan Carlos I, King of Spain — King of Spain (abdicated in 2014) $2.3 billion — $2 billion
• Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani — Emir of Qatar — $2.1 billion — $1.2 billion
• Albert II — Prince of Monaco — $1.0 billion
•  Elizabeth II — Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms (etc..)$530 million — $520 million
•  Charles, Prince of Wales Prince of Wales — $420 million
•  Queen Beatrix — Queen of the Netherlands (abdicated in 2013) — $200 million

Source: Wikipedia

Global private wealth

According to the Global wealth migration report, total private wealth held worldwide amounts to approximately USD 204 trillion. Global wealth migration has accelerated in 2018. Approximately 108,000 millionaires (HNWIs) migrated in 2018, compared to 95,000 in 2017. The US remains the largest wealth market in the world by some margin. The total amount of money in the world including all assets is 1.2 quadrillion US dollars.

Modern Wealth

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder’s wealth $170 billion ($0.17 trillion), and Elon musk about $220 billion ($0.22 trillion) while other royal families wealth is only a fraction compared to these people who lived in ancient times.   Rockefeller and Carnegie amassed close to $350 billion (close to half a billion).  The net worth of Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, is approximately only $3.1 billion according to Forbes as of 5 March 2019. All these numbers look only fraction when compared to trillions. All these billionaires still have lot of work to do to become a trillionaire.

In the 36th annual Forbes list of the world’s billionaires for 2022, the list included 2,668 billionaires with a total net wealth of $12.7 trillion

Source: Wikipedia

The current population of earth is 7.6 billion people as of May 2018.  If each of the people were to donate $131, it would create a first trillionaire and $136,000 per head would create world’s first quadrillionaire. Achieving these feats in terms of wealth is incomprehensible.

Unbelievable Wealth

Lets dig even deeper beyond trillions moving into quadrillions and quintillions. We wont live to see this in our lifetime.