Richest of the Rich
by Philip Beresford and William D. Rubinstein
The Sunday Times annual 'Rich List' generates enormous public interest each year, as wealth-watchers plot the growing fortunes of Britain's super-rich. Now the authors of the Rich List turn their attention to the wealthiest individuals in history, revealing how they made their fortunes, the role played by luck, contacts and violence, and how successful they were in clinging on to their gains.
People like:
- William of Warenne, the Earl of Surrey in the 1050s, who if he were alive today would be worth £58bn - three times richer than Britain's current richest man (steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal)
- Archbishop Thomas Becket, who took 250 servants with him on a visit to Paris in 1158, and was worth £19bn. Not that his fortune was much use when he was hacked to death in his own cathedral on the orders of Henry II.
- Lord Robert Spencer, forebear of Princess Diana, who made a fortune in the wool trade, owned vast tracts of land in the colony of Virginia. and accumulated a fortune equivalent to £14bn in today's money.
- James Morrison (1790-1857), who started as a warehouseman in a London drapiery, married the boss's daughter, and created Britain's first discount retailer. His £4m estate in 1857 is equivalent to £5.6 billion today.
- William Douglas, Duke of Queensberry, the most notorious rake of his generation who, even at 70, "oggled his way down St James Street". His fortune in landholding was augmented by astute gambling, an activity he used to separate many other members of the aristocracy from their money.
- Sir Peter Warren, an opportunistic naval officer who plundered his way to £3.5bn by capturing enemy French ships in 1745 and keeping a share of the booty.
- John Scott (1772-1775), a celebrated gambler whose skills and luck helped him to a £500,000 (£2.4bn) fortune. "As rich as Scott" was a popular saying of 18th Century society.
- Richard Arkwright, born in Derbyshire in the mid-1700s to poor parents, who invented a cotton machine, installed it in a factory, and over the next twenty years span his way to a £2.2bn fortune.
- James Williamson, (1842-1930), a reclusive eccentric , whose flooring empire recorded massive profits by keeping wages low, cracking down on unions, and sacking staff who belonged to the Labour Party. 'Lord Linoleum' worked to within a week of his death, dying without a will.