How The Richest Man Ever Spent His Trillions

earlier this year it was reported that jeff bezos was the first person in history to be worth more than 200 billion dollars and is currently the richest person on earth he makes an unbelievable 13 million dollars per hour but what if i told you someone in history was worth much much much more than jeff bezos so much more in fact that their wealth is considered by many professionals to be inconceivable incalculable and so vast that nobody will ever reach it again today we're going to discuss the wealth of mansa musa king of mali the wealthiest man in history we'll take a look at how he acquired his fortune and what exactly he spent all that money on let your mind drift back to 14th century europe the bubonic plague is sweeping across the land decimating cities and killing one third of the continent's population war is rampant leaving many dead the streets are full of garbage and well actual feces frankly it's a miserable time to be alive but if you look a bit south to africa it's the exact opposite the economy is booming there are mosques being built universities being constructed art being made and spread all across the continent and at the helm of it all is musa kita the first who was known as mensa musa after he took charge of the kingdom of mali in 1312 bce under mansamusa's rule the kingdom of mali was massive stretching across modern-day mali senegal guinea niger gambia nigeria chad burkina faso and mauritania stretching nearly 2 000 miles from one end to the other and within that territory there were resources that made molly and mansa musa unbelievably wealthy it's believed that during his reign the empire of mali was in control of half of the world's gold if there was an empire that had control of half of the world's gold today well from the gold alone they would be worth more than five trillion dollars that's twice the gdp of the united kingdom but it wasn't just gold that mansa muse's empire was in control over the empire of mali stretched from the atlantic ocean all the way to the sahara desert covering rainforests planes and all the resources that could be found within them much of the fortune of mali came from salt deposits and elephant ivory which were big sources of profit at the time when mansa musa took the throne the kingdom was already wealthy but he took things a step further expanding the territory to include 24 cities taking control of towns like timbuktu which allowed the kingdom to trade more freely so mansa musa was a fan of conquering of earning more resources for himself and his country but what exactly did he do with those resources frankly he likes to spin them in ways that would put marie antoinette and jeff bezos to shame to get a real understanding of how absurdly wealthy mansa musa really was it's important to look at the most ostentatious display of his fortune during his reign his pilgrimage to mecca mensa musa like most of the people in mali was muslim and while many muslims completed their pilgrimage to mecca no one in history has done it quite as luxuriously as mansa musa did for starters it wasn't just old mansa musa traveling through the desert on a camel sweating in the sun he traveled in comfort with plush accommodations that he didn't even have to set up himself because he had an entourage an entourage the size of a city it's estimated that there was 60 000 people in his caravan traveling with him at all times this caravan included 1 000 attendants including 500 attendants that solely served his head wife there were 500 slaves who carried something that you wouldn't necessarily expect to see in the hands of slaves golden staffs that weighed six pounds each for reference that's 3 000 pounds of gold total but that wasn't the only gold on the journey there were 100 camels carrying 300 pounds of gold each that's around 30 000 pounds worth of gold total today 30 000 pounds of gold would be worth around 888 million dollars with the additional cost of the golden staffs that'd be equal to around 970 million dollars just short of a billion and all owned exclusively by mansa musa when you add in the fact that he also owned many of the people in his caravan including thousands of slaves in attendance well that just adds to his worth and the extravagant display of wealth that this journey really was the female slaves wore brocade and yemeni silk gowns something very few people could afford and far from the typical clothes you'd imagine slaves to be wearing there were also hundreds more camels who carried silk other textiles and supplies for the group along the way to mecca the group stopped in foreign cities and went on shopping sprees where they'd buy pounds of specialty foods luxury clothing and confectionary treats when the majority of europe was starving mansa musa was blowing money like there was no tomorrow and buying things wasn't the only way he blew money he was known for giving money to the poor as he passed through towns and often gave money to different organizations and though at first glance it doesn't seem like spending your fortune in towns and giving away to the poor could cause any issues but that wasn't exactly the case here mansa musa left a trail of gold behind him everywhere he went and when he arrived in cairo that gold had quite an impact mansa musa intended to push through cairo on his way to mecca but the sultan al-nasir insisted that he stay and meet him so instead mensa musa stayed in a palace in cairo for three months spending his fortune and lounging around enjoying the spoils that come with being a king but upon finally leaving cairo the economy took a huge hit due to his generosity and extreme wealth the incomprehensible amount of gold he left behind actually depreciated the value of gold which took egypt 12 years to recover from can you imagine being so wealthy that simply spending your money as you please could the economy of a mighty empire i mean there's rich and then there's mensa musa rich during that trip it wasn't just his wealth that was spread it was word of his wealth the empire of mali was widely unknown at the time but became something of intrigue after the rest of the world saw the amount of money the kingdom had to burn when mensa musa returned to molly he wasn't done spending just quite yet during his travels he collected artists poets scholars and architects and brought them back with him intending to grow his cities even more he got to work building dozens of mosques universities and palaces one particular mosque the jingura beer mosque was commissioned by mensa musa the mosque was one of the largest and most impressive in all of africa and has withstood the test of time as it is still standing today 700 years later the mosque was designed by a famous architect who was paid in 440 pounds of gold equal to about 8.2 million dollars in today's money the mosque has three inner courts two minarets and 25 rows of pillars that had enough prayer space for two thousand people at a time then there were the universities specifically songkor university mansa musa strongly believed in educating and advancing the citizens of his empire so he commissioned sankor university to facilitate just that the university could house 25 000 people which is more than harvard university can house today it contained one of the largest libraries in the world rivaling the library of alexandria it's believed to have contained somewhere between 400 000 and seven hundred thousand manuscripts though many scholars suggest there may have been up to one million the scholars artists and scientists and mensa musa brought back from his trips worked with the university creating a fairly modern schedule and structure there were four levels of schooling which were the equivalent of degrees today students would receive special turbans upon graduating from each level and classes involved both secular and non-secular teachings and though mansa musa spent a lot of his fortune on his community he wasn't shy about spending a little bit on himself though his palace no longer stands and there are no records detailing what exactly it looked like we can take a look at palaces of nearby kingdoms to get an idea of what kind of extravagance his palace must have held most palaces weren't just one building they could be the size of an entire city with audience halls courtyards villas secondary palace buildings for extended royal family members apartments for officials and the specific royal apartment the area for the king and his wife often included bedrooms dressing rooms private audience chambers a courtyard with gardens and a harem because that's how they did things back in the day the palace ground also included dozens of courtyards worship temples and in some cases even ceremonial lakes and judging by how much mensa musa loved gold and silk i think it's safe to say his palace was probably decorated wall to wall with the most luxurious materials and surely things that he brought back from his lengthy travels and though we don't know exactly how much mensa musa earned we know one thing his wealth was so vast that he was able to propel his kingdom far into the future unfortunately that vast wealth came with a downside word of his fortune spread into europe which ended up contributing to the kingdom's downfall by the 15th century portugal was conducting naval raids against the kingdom and shortly after the colonization of the kingdom and continent contributed to the inevitable demise of the mali empire so there you have it how the richest man in history spent his fortune i wonder why jeff bezos isn't out building palaces all over the place what about you guys what would you do if you were worth hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars be sure to let me know in the comments down below thanks for watching if you enjoyed the video make sure to leave a like and subscribe and maybe turn on post notifications for the one time as always i'm mr luxury and if you don't mind me i've got some money to count pip pip to doodly do you

Channel: Mr. Luxury

Views: 499,646

Rating: 4.8649564 out of 5

Keywords: mansa musa, how was mansa musa so rich, how much was mansa musa worth, how mansa musa spent his trillions, how mansa musa spent his billions, mansa musa net worth, wealthiest person in history, richest person in history, the richest person of all time, the richest man of all time, richest man in history, wealthiest man in history, mansa musa wealth, richest person ever, the richest man ever, the richest person in history, the richest man to ever live, mansa musa history, mali

Id: jHqjVoqRGZY

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020