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Thoughts on Mansa Musa? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by fire86743@lemmygrad.ml to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml

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Mansa Musa is said to have been the richest man in human history, possessing in the 14th century AD what could today be considered at least $400 billion, and that's just a lower estimate. Basically, he was richer than Elon Musk.

He was the king of the Mali Empire, located in an area that produced HALF of all gold worldwide.

As a devout Muslim, he later took a pilgrimage to Mecca and was reported to be rather generous on his journey. The man was so absurdly rich that his donations would CAUSE LOCAL ECONOMIES TO HYPERINFLATE BECAUSE OF THE DEVALUATION OF GOLD!

You can read more about him.

Point is, what are yall's thoughts on the richest man in history that got rich by being the lucky king of the biggest producer of gold in the world.

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[–] Xiisadaddy@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Thats not how money works tho. U cant just convert gold into modern value and say he was the richest ever. If you brought a glock back to that time itd be worth more then all his gold combined to the people then. He had lots of gold sure but lots of gold only gets you so far. Thats why he was just throwing it around. He wasnt generous he just didnt need it. Itd be like if you had an unlimited supply of burritos. Youd be giving everyone you met burritos cuz its not like u can eat them all yourself.

Back then trade was pretty limited. Ya he could buy lots of stuff with his gold, but the logistics of that time would be a big limiter. Someone today worth say 100 million has a lot more functional ability to purchase things then mansa musa did.

There is a point at which having more gold just doesnt make you any richer in actuality. Sure numerically if you have 400 billion $ of gold your richer then if you have 300 billion $ of gold, but back then at that point its just rocks. Just like how the towns he went to and tossed gold around the value of gold collapased there his own gold had a much lower value due to the sheer supply.

Its similar to how people say an asteroid may have 3 trillion$ of platinum in it. Sure now it does but as soon as you mine the asteroid and that platinum floods the market its gonna be worth a lot less. So whoever goes and mines the asteroid isnt actually gonna have 3 trillion $.

Even if you teleported Mansa Musa to modern day with all his gold as soon as he starts selling it the value of gold is gonna plummet. He is rich no doubt, but the dollar value of the gold itself is just sensationalism.

[–] cayde6ml@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I read that he gave away gold genuinely because he wanted to help people. I could be wrong though. Sure, the value of gold might have plummeted at different areas and times in different contexts, but it's still fucking gold.

I take issue with you saying the dollar value of all that gold or trillions of dollars of Platinum is sensationalized. It probably is, but again, it would all be worth a shit ton.

[–] Xiisadaddy@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 1 day ago

There is only so much demand for gold. It only has a value thats high because its rare. If you have a ton its not very valuable anymore. Especially back then before modern technology. We have a lot of practical uses for gold today back then it was basically just used because it doesnt tarnish and its hard to find so its a good store of value.

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