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Forget Elon Musk – meet Mansa Musa, the ‘richest man in history’
- brandonlc 4y agoI remember first reading about Musa when I was dreaming up new civilizations that could be included in the upcoming Civilization III game. I wanted so bad for there to be more than just one civ from sub-Saharan Africa, and reading about African history introduced me to a bunch of west African civs that I'd never knew existed.
- graderjs 4y agoThe journey [to Mecca] took Musa and his companions through the Sahara desert and Egypt, reaching Cairo, where the emperor would generously splash his cash – or gold, in this case – in the capital. He spent so much gold that he destabilised the local economy and caused mass inflation for 10 years after his departure. If only they had speculators so he could have made an extra killing shorting the markets, then he'd really topple Musk for all time ;P ;) xx ;p