Product Description

What does Bill Gates have in common with Genghis Khan? Or Pope Alexander VI, the English inventor Richard Arkwright, or Hetty Green who was the "witch of Wall Street" during the 19th century? All were among the richest people in history. Through their stories, the author traces the major financial and technological developments that shaped the world we live in today. Once, plunder was the main source of great fortunes - then trade, financial entrepreneurship and manufacturing. Today it is selling high technology to a mass market. The stories of those who did the best possible job of getting rich is one of expanding opportunity, with wealth spreading beyond the few and society evolving in dramatic ways.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1007287 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
According to an old saying, the rich are different from you and me because they have more money. According to Wall Street Journal senior editor Cynthia Crossen, the very rich are different because they often cross into unknown territory to obtain their great wealth--and regularly presage significant changes in society and culture while doing so. Crossen profiles 10 of these notable magnates in The Rich and How They Got That Way, focusing on a truly unorthodox assortment from a thousand-year period that fit this dual definition. The result is novel, engaging and instructive.

Much of this stems from the choices that Crossen has made, which are presented chronologically from military leader Machmud of Ghazni of the 10th century through technology leader Bill Gates of the 21st. In between there is Genghis Khan (who went "beyond simple robbery" to "taxing a conquered people"); Mansa Musa (a master of early worldwide trade routes through Africa); Pope Alexander VI (who managed to "rule the spiritual world and manipulate the political"); Jacob Fugger (a 15th century German money-lender); John Law (who refashioned France's treasury during the late 1600s); Richard Arkwright (a forefather of the industrial revolution); Howqua, (a Chinese trader at the tail-end of his country's global isolation); and Hetty Green ("the early 20th century queen of the stock market"). Students of both business enterprise and world history will appreciate how these stories cleverly tie together the surprisingly parallel development of each discipline. --Howard Rothman

Review
"Offers a splendid demonstration of why capitalism saw off its various ideological competitors." The Sunday Times Book of the Week "An entertaining look back of the last millennium at the lives of the vry rich and how they made, invested and spent their cash." Moneywise

Moneywise
“An entertaining look back of the last millennium at the lives of the vry rich and how they made, invested and spent their cash.”