The Richest Man in History
How did a remote west African kingdom, come to become the birthplace of the wealthiest person in history? And who was this person that puts today's tech billionaires to shame? 👇Read on to find out.
If you had to take a guess, who would you say was the richest person ever to live? King Louis XVI of France? John Rockefeller of Standard Oil? The Nizam of Hyderabad? Alexander the Great? Roman Emperor Augustus?
None of the above. The richest person ever to live came from Mali (yes that Mali). His wealth was so enormous that he single-handedly caused a crash in gold prices due to his profligate spending. Estimated wealth adjusted for inflation: $400 billion (or 4x Jeff Bezos).
How did a remote west African kingdom, come to become the birthplace of the wealthiest person in history? And who was this person that puts today's tech billionaires to shame? 👇Read on to find out.
🇲🇱 All roads lead to... Timbuktu?
Today, Timbuktu is usually used in reference to a remote or extremely distant place. 'from here to Timbuktu'. But in the 12th Century AD, Timbuktu was a thriving centre of commerce and trade located at the intersection of the trans-Saharan trade routes that crisscrossed western and northern Africa. As one of the few cities that had access to plentiful freshwater in the region, it was a convenient resting place for traders' caravans.
The Mali Empire also invested in the security of the trade routes and administration of the local markets and caravanserais. This ensured that all goods that came in to or left Timbuktu were counted and taxed. As trade flourished, new routes leading to Egypt, Ethiopia, and Morocco were established. Dealing in ivory, salt, and as always, slaves.
But Timbuktu's emergence as a trading hub cannot account for the vast sums of wealth in the kingdom, after all, during the 12th century, there were numerous centers of trade in the world that handled larger quantities of trade but were not quite as wealthy.
So what made Mali different?
🔶 Gold and 🧂Salt
Gold is one of those materials that has always been prized throughout history. Its durability, its malleability, and its shine have made it a favourite material for jewelers across the centuries.
The Mali Empire just so happened to have two of the world's largest goldfields within its territory. Note how it says goldfields and not mines - this is because the goldfields of Mali had nuggets of gold and gold powder within 15 feet of the surface - making it extremely easy and cheap to extract the precious metal.
13th century Mali was to gold what Saudi Arabia is to oil: cheap, easily extracted and leading to a windfall in government revenues. Like the Saudis today, the Malians did not understand how superfluous this wealth could be.
Gold was the exclusive property of the King and was illegal to trade within his borders. All gold was immediately handed over to the imperial treasury.
Adding to the wealth from gold was salt. Today we consider salt to be an almost worthless resource, easily purchased at a supermarket. But salt was a key strategic resource for most of history. Salt's ability to preserve food was a founding contributor to the development of civilization. It helped to eliminate dependence on the seasonal availability of food and made it possible to transport food over large distances.
Salt was as valuable, if not more valuable, than gold in sub-Saharan Africa. It was cut into pieces and spent on goods with close to equal buying power throughout the empire.
🤴🏿Mansa Musa I
Just as the Mali Empire was starting to exploit its vast natural resources and enviable position as a trading hub, Mansa Musa ascended the throne.
Interestingly, Mansa Musa was not heir to the throne, but was appointed as Deputy when King Abu Bakr Keita II went on an expedition to explore the end of the Atlantic Ocean - he never returned.
Almost immediately upon his ascension, Mansa Musa began a campaign of conquests that would see him conquer 24 cities and greatly expand the size of the Mali Empire as well as putting down rebellions. Enjoying the peace, stability and wealth that he had brought to his kingdom, Musa began spending more time learning about Islam, building mosques and corresponding with other Muslim rulers in Africa.
🕋 The Road to Mecca
To Musa, Islam was "entry into the cultured world of the Eastern Mediterranean". He would spend much time fostering the growth of the religion within his empire and planned for several years a grand pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 CE. Until this point, Mansa Musa and Mali were barely known in the wider world and no one really had any idea of his wealth.
His pilgrimage to Mecca was a vast undertaking that included:
👘 60,000 men all wearing outfits made of Persian silk and brocade
⛓ 12,000 slaves: Each carrying 1.8kg of gold bars
🐪 80 camels: each carrying 130kg of gold powder
And a vast procession of horses, heralds, food, and supplies to feed these tens of thousands of men for over a year.
On his way to Mecca, Mansa Musa carried with him 32,000 kg of gold. And today's prices that is $1.86 BILLION. And that was just for him to spend on his journey!
Due to his nature of giving and inspired by the Islamic tenet of zakat (charity), he gave away gold to beggars, spent vast sums on his entourage, and invited traders from all the cities he visited to sell him their most expensive goods.
He spent so much gold in Cairo that it caused a massive devaluation in the price of gold! According to the Moroccan traveler Ibn-Battuta; the price of gold crashed to equal the price of flour. Leading to the ruin of the gold merchants and runaway inflation in Egypt.
On his way back, Musa ran out of gold. But he knew that he had plenty of gold back in Mali, so he borrowed vast sums of gold from the merchants in Cairo at extremely high-interest rates, thereby once again increasing the value of gold and saving the Egyptian economy from collapse.
This is the only example of anyone, anywhere in history singlehandedly controlling the price of gold
🔻 Legacy and Decline
Mansa Musa would return to Mali and greatly inspired with his travels to Mecca set about building new mosques, universities and creating an early form of a social welfare system to protect and care for the poorest of his subjects.
Musa's expedition also made the world aware of Mali and soon envoys from Spain, England, France, the Turks all came to pay their respects to Mansa Musa and open trade linkages, leading to a golden age for the Mali Empire.
As it commonly happens to all prosperous empires everywhere, the Malians began to grow soft with their newfound wealth. They spent increasingly vast sums on precious clothes, jewellery, and other amusements, and lost the martial spirit that had allowed them access to this lifestyle in the first place.
Consumed by palace intrigues, political infighting, and poorly planned military campaigns, within 200 years of Mansa Musa's rule, the Malian capital was seized by enemies and burnt to the ground. Leading to the end of the Mali empire.
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Excellent a eye opener i will definitely share 👌🏽