The global economy has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The effect of coronavirus on multinational companies has been unprecedented with many of them have suffered a huge loss. However, the Covid-19 crisis has helped Reliance Jio attracting investors.
All businesses got affected during the coronavirus lockdown, but Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani took the world by surprise after surpassing the richest man in Europe, Bernard Arnault to become the fourth wealthiest person in the world. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world with a net wealth of more than $200 billion. So is he the richest human being of all time? Not quite.
Mansa Musa I of Mali is the richest human being in history with a personal net worth of $400 billion! Mansa Musa lived from 1280 – 1337 and ruled the Malian Empire which covered modern day Ghana, Timbuktu and Mali in West Africa.
His wealth vastly surpassed any living person today, and in the Middle Ages, he was emperor of the Mali Empire, an Islamic West African state. His reign lasted between 1312–37, during which the Malian Empire covered modern day Ghana, Timbuktu and Mali.
Musa’s immense wealth can be attributed to the fact that Mali produced staggering quantities of salt and gold. The man is most famous for his 6500 km trip to Mecca accompanied by a caravan of 60,000 people.
Musa would build several mosques during his rule, as he was a devout Muslim. He would also give away large quantities of gold, so much so it would destabilise entire economical structures. What’s interesting to note is that even his servants wore fine Persian silk and brocades. Along the way, Musa helped the poor people he encountered by giving them the gold they carried. Musa was multiple times richer than Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani. It is said that he donated more gold than Ambani’s total wealth.
His kingdom and wealth didn’t last much longer after his death. His heirs were not able to fend off civil war and invading conquerors. Just two generations later, his world record net worth was gone.
