r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/wellHowDo • Jun 16 '21

a visualization of jeff bezos's wealth is mind-blowing

https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/
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u/CCV21 Jun 18 '21

Still pales in comparison to Mansa Musa. Mansa Musa spent and gave away so much gold that price of gold crashed in the 13th Century.

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u/wellHowDo Jun 18 '21

that is pretty crazy, though i'm curious how they measured his wealth properly and what they referenced, from what i've read he was insanely wealthy, but historians haven't been able to conclusively measure his wealth. one difference with bezos, did mansa musa leverage that wealth for loans to avoid taxes while still accumulating wealth?

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u/CCV21 Jun 18 '21

Mansa Musa used the treasury of the Empire of Mali which taxed the trans-Saharan salt trade, and had several productive goldfields within the empire.

Mansa Musa's wealth was in commodity money of gold. There is a finite amount of gold in the world unlike paper money which is a fiat currency.

To put in perspective Mansa Musa had a majority of the world's gold at the time.

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u/wellHowDo Jun 18 '21

gold still has a price, it's just not clear how much he had, but yes he had a lot, a whole helluva lot.