1. Mansa Musa
Timbuktu's ruler, Mansa Musa, is considered history's richest. Musa's west African kingdom was possibly the world's biggest gold producer at a period when gold was in high demand, according to Ferrum College history professor Richard Smith.
2. Augustus Caesar
Augustus Caesar ruled an empire that produced 25% to 30% of the world's economy, and Stanford history professor Ian Morris claims he maintained personal fortune equal to one-fifth of it.
3. Emperor Shenzong
China's Song Dynasty (960 1279) was one of the most prosperous regimes. Prof. Ronald A. Edwards, a Chinese economic historian of the Song Dynasty at Tamkang University, estimates that the country produced 25% 30% of the world's economy at its zenith.
4. Akbar I
Akbar, the greatest Mughal monarch, controlled almost 25% of global economic production. According to Fortune's Chris Matthews, the late economic historian Angus Maddison said that Akbar's India had a GDP per capita.
5. Joseph Stalin
Stalin, an absolute dictator who oversaw one of the world's greatest economies, is rare in economic history. Multiple experts consider Stalin one of the wealthiest persons of all time due to his unusual mix of economic prowess and total control of the USSR.
6. Andrew Carnegie
Although Rockefeller receives all the headlines, Andrew Carnegie may be the wealthiest American. The Scottish immigrant sold U.S. Steel to J.P. Morgan for $480 million in 1901. That figure gave Carnegie economic power equal to $372 billion in 2014, little over 2.1% of U.S. GDP.
8. Alan Rufus (a.k.a. Alan the Red)
The nephew of William the Conqueror, Rufus joined his uncle in the Norman conquest. He died with £11,000, according to Philip Beresford and Bill Rubinstein,