In much of the history of the world "rich people" have been in fact controllers in one form or another of the public's purse strings; nobility, royalty, religio

In much of the history of the world "rich people" have been in fact controllers in one form or another of the public's purse strings; nobility, royalty, religious leaders have been most of the world's rich people, merchants and industrialists are rather new entries into that class. In other words most of the grand artistic works people point to as being funded by "rich people" were funded by public wealth controlled by those "rich people".