Who was the richest person in the world at the start and end of WW2?
Upvote:-4
According to Seagrave's book, Gold Warriors, the richest man at the end of WWII was presumably the Emperor of Japan. Japan had spent the previous 50 years looting and pillaging various territories. It is believed at least a third of the war loot had been brought back to Japan by the end of the war. Other parts of the war loot was discovered by the Americans and used to set up the "Black Eagle Gold Trust". Is there a connection decades later to 911?
Upvote:19
John D. Rockefeller Sr. was far and away the richest man in the world in 1937 at his death. But with the bulk of his wealth bequeathed to the Rockefeller (and other) foundations rather than to his son John D. Jr., that probably leaves Henry Ford the world's richest man in 1939.
However Ford had suffered a number of strokes in the late 1930's, and when he resumed active direction of the company in 1943 after Edsel's death, gross mismanagement led to horrendous monthly losses and his ouster in 1945. As the largest customer of the Ford Motor Company during those years was undoubtedly the American military, one might almost say that despite his virulent and infamous anti-Semitism, Ford personally financed a more rapid defeat of Nazi Germany.
There are numerous lists on the web listing the Wealthiest persons in history, all with slightly varying estimates of the order and composition, but all place Ford high on the list. The contemporaries who contested his position - Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Mellon, and Rockefeller - had all preceded him to the grave, bequeathing their vast fortunes to foundations.
Here is the very first Forbes Rich List, from 1918, which lists the richest 30 Americans of that date. It is very likely that the wealthiest individuals up to the early 1950's can trace much of their wealth back to this list, due to the world-wide effect of the Great Depression and the accompanying deflation.
More post
- 📝 Were the Nazis the first to use phenol as a means of execution?
- 📝 Could skirmishers pass through friendly formations in ancient/medieval warfare?
- 📝 How close did the US come to removing the Electoral College in 1970?
- 📝 Why didn't Mao see that the "Great Leap Forward" would be such a disaster?
- 📝 Why did not US use solely (more) aviation and artillery when taking Okinawa during ww2?
- 📝 How came the poppy be associated with WW1?
- 📝 When did we know the color/appearance of all the planets in our solar system?
- 📝 What are the "sexual causes" for the French Revolution cited in Wikipedia?
- 📝 What is "Distributed Survival Theory"?
- 📝 What was Wilhelm II's "book about the causes of the war"?
- 📝 How might I use a number written over portrait image to help identify the person or tribe, if Indigenous Indian?
- 📝 How did the Soviet Union support the development of their atomic bomb in 1949?
- 📝 What made Alexander great?
- 📝 Why were eighteenth century financial inventions only patentable under French law for 21 months?
- 📝 Was the N.E.P. of Russia successful in terms of economics?
- 📝 Was WW2 necessary for Germany economically?
- 📝 What are Kublai Khan's contributions to culture?
- 📝 Why did China and some other communist countries boycot the 1980 Summer Olympics?
- 📝 Did the Weimar governments publish revelatory WWI documents?
- 📝 What was the exact time of announcement of Indian independence?
- 📝 How did Allies secure southern flank during "Race to the Rhine"?
- 📝 Why is physical skeuomorphism so prevalent and when did it become popular?
- 📝 How is it that King Philips War devastated the colonists so much, but the Colonists were not driven out?
- 📝 Origin of an old museum ticket
- 📝 Was Ireland really England's first colony?
- 📝 Which battle enabled Andrew Jackson to become the President of USA?
- 📝 Are the Xibe people the same as the Manchu?
- 📝 How did Japan get so many Nobel Prizes?
- 📝 Is this painting by a famous artist?
- 📝 Is the Sandracottus genus of beetles named after Chandragupta Maurya?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Who was the richest person in the world at the start and end of WW2?
- 📝 Who was the last person "Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered" under British jurisdiction?
- 📝 How was the sea route to Asia and the discovery of the New World prompted by the fall of Constantinople? And who discovered the new world?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 Who was the last US president who did not start a war?
- 📝 How many pens were used by MacArthur to end the final chapter of World War II and where are they now?
- 📝 Was Ford the only person who became a US president without winning an election?
- 📝 When was King John of England given the name 'Dollheart', and who first used it?
- 📝 Why was Bulgaria at war with both the Allied and the Axis at the end of WWII?
- 📝 Who was 'Viscount Yi' and what did he do to survive in the court of a madman?
- 📝 When did last names start being used, and who introduced the concept?
- 📝 Who was the earliest historian of the Greco-Roman world to write something substantial about China?
- 📝 Was there any influence between the Gracchus reforms and the end of the republic?
- 📝 What is the term for a person who surveys the land and relays messages from a noble to his governed village?
- 📝 On the Ezana Stone, who are the black and red people that the Ethiopian king was referring to?
- 📝 Who conducted the first "straw poll" in U.S. election politics, and when was it conducted?
- 📝 Who was the Ottoman who started as a slave boy and eventually became Grand Vizier by the time he was 80?
- 📝 Who was the first Renaissance cartographer to include rich content in their maps that went beyond spatial points, borders, and location names?
- 📝 Who was Jack Hagler? As amended by chapter 87-24, Laws of Florida, this section shall be known and may be cited as the “Jack Hagler Self Defense Act.”
- 📝 What was the ideological and philosophical underpinnings of World War II?
- 📝 At the end of the Seven Years War, what was the total amount of gold and silver in Britain?
- 📝 Was there any other Germanic person who gained an important position in The Byzantine Empire other than Emperor Tiberios III Apsimar?
- 📝 Who was the architect of Uraniborg and Stjerneborg?
- 📝 When was the term for WW2 first used and was it more popular in, say, US before Europe?
- 📝 What was the significance of ball bearing factories during the World Wars and in the economy at the time in general??
- 📝 During segregation and Jim Crow laws in the US what happened if a person was allowed to use white facilities but other users objected?
- 📝 Was there any treaty during WWI and II with the world countries and Sir Henry Dunant's Red Cross to respect those with Red Cross?
- 📝 How, and why, did Ancient Chinese hold banners displaying the type of work a person was undertaking?
- 📝 Who is the first person in the 17th century to describe themselves as a "white" person and who invented the term "white race"?