Quote:Just a side note on this,
Are you sure of this? I've seen inflation adjusted amount for both (JJ) Astor and (A) Carnegie (after selling his steel business, but before he started his endowments and charities) where they were ranked higher than Rockefeller when adjusted for inflation. They also were before Standard Oil really got going in the early 20th Century (Astor being mid 19th century and Carnegie being late 19th century and Carnegie was sitting on 1/2 Billion in the late 1880s/early 1890s when Morgan Stanely along with a large number of investors purchased his steel empire).
As with all attempts to create historically accurate indices, it's as much a guessing game as a science. However, the oracle of Wikipedia says Carnegie is second. Astor is not on the list, although I have seen him on other lists.
Regardless, Rockefeller was ludicrously, limitlessly, unfathomably rich. You could have taxed him 200% of his income, and he still would have been the richest person in the world.
-Jester