A trillionaire is someone whose wealth is greater than a trillion dollars. A trillion dollars is so huge that if everyone on earth donates $100, it would still not measure up to a trillion dollars. A trillion dollars can also be referred to as a million million. This means it would take the combined input of 1 million people having up to a million to amount to a trillion. Let’s face reality this amount Of money is so inconceivable to imagine. It would take an average person over 31,000 years to calculate this amount with a speed of 1 dollar per second. Yes, it would take 31,000 years – you read that right- centuries upon centuries.
1,000,000,000,000 is a trillion. 1 followed by 12 whole zeros! That’s a very huge amount- money or otherwise.
Currently, the world has no trillionaires and according to Forbes, the world’s first billionaire won’t come from the crop of the richest people, as even assumptions made on the highest level of optimism still shows the impossibility of that happenstance.
The world has housed trillionaires in the past. A few ancient monarchs, kleptocrats, and financiers were so wealthy that accurately calculating their wealth was practically impossible as at that time. The wealth of these people have been roughly estimated. Here’s a list of trillionaire that ever lived on earth and their estimated net worth:
1. Genghis Khan (over a hundred trillion dollars)
2. Zhao Xu (over 30 trillion dollars)
3. Akbar, the great (over 21 trillion dollars)
4. King Amenhotep III (4-6 trillion dollars)
5. Augustus Caesar (4.6 trillion dollars)
6. King Solomon (2 trillion dollars)
- Genghis Khan (1158-1227)
Genghis Khan, before his death, was the emperor of the Largest contiguous empire in terms of wealth and second by land mass after the British Empire. His conquest was second to none on earth, as over 24 million kilometers of land was conquered during his reign. His net worth is estimated to be just above a hundred trillion dollars. This estimate is by far higher than the estimated net worth of any other person on earth. His network is higher than the combined nominal GDP of all the nations of the world. It also doubles the combined nominal gross domestic product (nominal GDP) of the 5 richest countries in the world by GDP.
- Zhao Xu (1048-1085)
He was one of the Emperors of the Song Dynasty in China. He was traditionally known as Shenzong of Song Dynasty. Until his death, the emperor controlled 30% of the world GDP which amounted to over a whooping sum of 30 million- million US dollars – 30 trillion dollars
- Akbar, the Great (1542-1605)
Akbar was the greatest of the Mughal emperors of India. He started ruling the Mughal empire at age 14. At the time of his rule, he was able to expand the Mughal empire to stretch into most parts of the Indian subcontinent which comprised many of the countries now mapped out as Southern Asia. With this he was able to control wealth summing up to 25% of the world’s nominal GDP as of then. His net worth is estimated at 21 trillion dollars.
- Amenhotep III (1388-1351BC)
King Amenhotep was one of the past pharaohs of Egypt. This monarch was also known as ‘Amenhotep the Magnificent’ due to his feat in moving Egypt to a place of International power and also artistic power. During his era, he had control of an estimated 4-6 trillion USD.
- Augustus Caesar (63BC – 14AD)
According to Times Magazine, Augustus Caesar’s wealth can be estimated at 4.6 trillion dollars, since he practically owned the whole of Egypt. Augustus was the first Roman Emperor. He reigned for 41 years, his reign only coming to an end when he died in the year 14AD.
Augustus personally owned 20% of the Roman Empire during his reign. Mind you, the then Roman empire covered about 30% of the whole world, spanning Northern Europe (England, Wales) Western Europe (France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, and part of Germany), Eastern Europe (The Soviet union, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia) Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Albania,), Northern Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt), and the Middle East (Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey and Syria).
- King Solomon
This ancient king was renowned for his wealth of wisdom and also material possessions. He was able to amass great wealth from the spoils of his opponents. King Solomon ruled Israel between 970-931BCE after succeeding his father, King David. Solomon’s reign in Egypt was by far the most prosperous period in Egypt. He is popular for his many wives and concubines. History has it that Solomon had 1000 wives and concubines. His wealth is said to have surpassed 2 trillion USD, in today’s money equivalence.
… IF ONLY WE COULD NAME ‘DECIMAL TRILLIONAIRES’, TRILLIONAIRES!
Apart from these wealthy monarchs, there have existed many other extremely wealthy individuals whose wealths could be estimated to be exceedingly a-tenth of a trillion USD. Some of these people lived in the era of antiquity, while a few others existed in the early modern period. Some of these wealthy folks are still alive and have their names written in the Forbes list of rich people.
Here’s a list of some of the ‘decimal trillionaires’ with peak net worth above 0.2 trillion USD.
1. Mansa Musa I of Mali (0.415 trillion USD)
2. John D. Rockefeller (0.367 trillion USD)
3. Andrew Carnegie (0.337 trillion USD)
4. Nicholas Romanov (0.3 trillion USD)
5. Osman Ali Khan (0.23 trillion USD)
6. Jakob Fugger (0.277 trillion USD)
7. William the Conqueror (0.228 trillion USD)
8. Muammar Gaddafi (0.212 trillion USD)
9. Cornelius Vanderbilt (0.202 trillion USD)
10. Henry Ford (0.2 trillion USD)
Mind you, these people are not trillionaires because they’ve not amassed up to a trillion dollars. Maybe, if the measure for defining wealth ever changes from the United States dollars to the Iranian Rial or Tanzanian Shilling then they could be tagged as multi-trillionaires, but until then there is currently no trillionaire on earth.s