by Daniel Coughlin
Andrew Carnegie (English: /kɑːrˈnɛɡi/ kar-NEG-ee, Scots: [kɑrˈnɛːɡi]; November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late-19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States, Great Britain, and the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away around $350 million (equivalent to $10.9 billion in 2024), almost 90 percent of his fortune, to charities, foundations and universities. His 1889 article proclaiming “The Gospel of Wealth” called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, expressed support for progressive taxation and an estate tax, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.
1900s: Andrew Carnegie
Rockefeller was usurped as the richest person in the world at the turn of the century by archrival Andrew Carnegie.
Born in Dunfermline in 1835, the Scottish-American industrialist spearheaded the expansion of the steel industry in the US, stockpiling a fortune.
His company, Carnegie Steel, was sold to JP Morgan in 1901 for $480 million, or $17.4 billion in today’s money.
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as JPMorgan Chase & Co., he was a driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.
According to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, his peak net worth amounted to the modern-day equivalent of $375 billion.
1910s: John D. Rockefeller
Carnegie, who died in 1919, gave away 90% of his wealth during his lifetime, and Rockefeller regained the number one spot in the 1910s.
In 1911, the US Supreme Court found Standard oil in violation of anti-trust laws and ordered the breakup of the company.
Rockefeller received bumper stock options and by 1913, his wealth peaked to around $900 million, equivalent to $28.6 billion in today’s money.
1920s: John D. Rockefeller
Like Carnegie, Rockefeller was famed for his philanthropy.
The oil magnate made his first charitable donation at the age of 16 and stepped up his giving in the 1890s following a meeting with Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, who urged the tycoon to be more magnanimous with his money.
Swami Vivekananda[a] (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta[b] was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world. He is credited with raising interfaith awareness and bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion in the late nineteenth century.
In the 1920s, Rockefeller almost single-handedly funded the eradication of yellow fever and hookworm in the US.
1930s: John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller maintained his status as the world’s richest person until his death in 1937.
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was an American politician from the state of New York. Sometimes referred to by his nickname Rocky, Rockefeller served under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977 as the 41st vice president of the United States. He was the 49th governor of New York, serving from 1959 to 1973. Rockefeller was a member of the Republican Party and of the wealthy Rockefeller family.
During his golden years, the business magnate continued to give lavishly, donating more than $500 million to good causes, a tradition carried on by his many notable descendants, who include former US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and banker David Rockefeller.
David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American economist and investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family from 2004 until his death in 2017. Rockefeller was the fifth son and youngest child of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and a grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Laura Spelman Rockefeller. He was noted for his wide-ranging political connections and foreign travel, in which he met with many foreign leaders. His fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion at the time of his death.
At the time of his death in 1937, the oil dynasty founder boasted an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion, the equivalent of $21.7 billion in 2024.
However, some financial scholars have even suggested he may have been worth somewhere in the region of $400 billion in today’s money.
1940s: Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automobiles affordable for middle-class Americans through the system that came to be known as Fordism. In 1911, he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in the Ford Model T and other automobiles.
Born in 1863, the founder of the hugely profitable Ford Motor Company revolutionized vehicle manufacturing and brought the car to the mass market, selling millions of vehicles during his lifetime.
By the 1940s, Ford had risen to become the wealthiest person on the planet.
At the time of his death in 1947, the automotive pioneer’s net worth was the equivalent of more than $200 billion in 2024 money.
Jean Paul Getty Sr. (/ˈɡɛti/; December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American-born British petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was the patriarch of the Getty family. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was the son of pioneer oilman George Getty. In 1957, Fortune magazine named J. Paul Getty the wealthiest living American, while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records declared him to be the world’s wealthiest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approximately $8.6 billion in 2023). At the time of his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $25 billion in 2023). A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th wealthiest American who ever lived (based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product). Getty was known for his frugality, going so far as to haggle with the kidnappers when his grandson was held to ransom in 1973. He had five children and divorced five times. Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities. His collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; more than $661 million of his estate was left to the museum after his death. He established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The trust, which is the world’s wealthiest art institution, operates the J. Paul Getty Museum Complexes: the Getty Center, the Getty Villa and the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute.
1950s: J. Paul Getty
J. Paul Getty was born in 1892 in Minneapolis and began investing in the oil industry in his early 20s.
Infamously frugal, the penny-pinching tycoon steadily built up a colossal business empire based on the black stuff, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that he really cashed in after leasing a track of oil-rich land in the Middle East.
In 1957, Fortune magazine named Getty the richest living American.
1960s: J. Paul Getty
Getty maintained his grip on the global oil industry throughout the 1960s and was declared the world’s richest person in 1966 by the Guinness Book of Records with a fortune of $1.2 billion, which is $11.7 billion in today’s money.
He had plenty of cash to indulge in his favorite pastime, collecting art.
Miles Williams Mathis: The CIA & Art – Do YOU have the HOLY GHOST?
1970s: J. Paul Getty
The miserly oil magnate hit the headlines in 1973 when he refused to pay a $17 million ($120m today) ransom to secure the release of his grandson John Paul Getty III, who had been kidnapped in Rome.
John Paul Getty III (/ˈɡɛti/; born Eugene Paul Getty II; November 4, 1956 – February 5, 2011) was the grandson of American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, who was once the richest man in the world. While living in Rome in 1973, he was kidnapped by the ‘Ndrangheta and held for a $17 million ransom. His grandfather was reluctant to pay, but, after John Paul Getty III’s severed ear was received by a newspaper, the grandfather negotiated a payment of $2.2 million, and Getty was released five months after being kidnapped. Getty subsequently developed an addiction to alcohol and other drugs, leading to an overdose and stroke in 1981 which left him severely disabled for the rest of his life.
A deal was eventually worked out, but only after the kidnappers cut off the teenager’s ear.
When he died in 1976, Getty had a net worth of $6 billion, about $34 billion in today’s money.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi (堤 義明, Tsutsumi Yoshiaki, born May 29, 1934) is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble, Forbes listed Tsutsumi as the wealthiest person in the world during 1987–94 due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. In 1987, he had a net worth of $20 billion (approximately $46 billion in today’s value[when?]). However, as a result of a series of scandals and his 2005 arrest, his net worth has fallen to such an extent that he was taken off the Forbes list of billionaires in 2007.
1980s: Yoshiaki Tsutsumi
Japanese property magnate Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was the richest person of the 1980s, topping the Forbes global wealth list three years in a row.
At the height of the country’s real estate bubble in 1987, Tsutsumi was worth $20 billion, equivalent to $55.6 billion today.
But the good times didn’t last.
Real estate values nosedived in the 1990s, and Tsutsumi was caught up in an accounting scandal in the early 2000s.
By 2006, he had fallen off the Forbes list.
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following the company’s 1986 initial public offering (IPO), increases in its share price made Gates then the youngest ever billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world’s wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. He became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed $100 billion. On the 2024 Forbes list, he was ranked the world’s seventh wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of $128 billion.
1990s: Bill Gates
COSMOS: MATRIX: TIME: The Nineties – Do YOU have the HOLY GHOST?
Microsoft boss Bill Gates topped Forbes‘ list of the world’s richest for the first time in 1995 thanks to his company’s surging stock.
That year, the tech tycoon was worth $12.9 billion, which is around $26.7 billion in today’s money.
At one point in 1999, Gates’ net worth was over $100 billion, or $189 billion when adjusted for inflation.
Miles Williams Mathis: Bill Gates, a Jewish Aristocrat – Do YOU have the HOLY GHOST?
CONTINUE
CIVILIZATION: RICHEST in 21st Century – Do YOU have the HOLY GHOST?