History by the Numbers (2021) s01e05 Episode Script

1
- How much money would I need
to live the life of my dreams?
- My dream life?
- I feel like I need
like $3 million.
- If I just had like a
goose that laid golden eggs
and some money
trees, I'd be set.
- Well, I'm already living the
life of my dreams right now.
- I want to be like
Bill Gates, but better.
- I'm just kidding,
I need $4 billion.
- [Host] In 2021,
the wealthiest people
on the planet were worth more
than the gross domestic
product of France, Germany,
England, Italy, and
Canada combined.
And we're not talking the
richest 1%, but the 0.0004%.
- Altogether, the
world's richest are
worth $13.1 trillion.
- 13.1.
- Trillion dollars.
- It's staggering.
- And those are the
people we look to
as though they have some
sort of superior idea,
wisdom, organizational
principle.
- Everyone tries to break down
what is the secret
to being wealthy?
- [Host] So what does it
take to become so rich?
What do these guys
know that we don't?
- Every hundred years or
so, we have some cycle.
The billionaires
and wealthy of today
are directly
connected to the past.
- [Host] This is
the story of six
of the wealthiest
people in history
and the secret of how
they became crazy rich.
(upbeat music)
- [Announcer] Eight, seven, six,
five, four, command
engine start.
Three, two, ignition.
(upbeat music)
- [Host] If you think this
is how rich people like
to spend their
money, think again,
because for the
likes of Elon Musk,
Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos,
this isn't just an
expensive hobby,
it's a way to make
themselves even more money.
- Some people are
super charming.
Some people are super evil.
Some people are super smart.
But what these people have in
common is an uncanny ability
to know what's gonna
happen before it happens.
So Jeff Bezos, he's already
conquered the earth.
Let's conquer the universe,
let's conquer some
other planets.
- [Host] It's the ability
to predict the future
that sets him apart.
And it's why a guy like
Jeff Bezos is a billionaire
and you're probably not.
(baby crying)
- When they did the 2021
Forbes billionaires list,
number one on the list for
the fourth year in a row
was Jeff Bezos, the
founder of Amazon.
He is worth $177 billion.
- When I think crazy and rich-
- Oh yeah, Papa
Jeff, Jeff Bezos.
- When you say the
names Jeff Bezos,
I think that we're burning
down the wrong Amazon.
(fire truck sirens wail)
- [Host] In 2018, Amazon
raked in $232.9 billion.
A year later, Jeff Bezos was
making $149,353 every minute.
- Like, he was making
$150,000 a minute.
- That's thousands of dollars
just leaking out your pockets.
- This hurts me to share this,
but Jeff Bezos makes more
in one minute and 60 seconds
than three teachers
do in a year.
- [Host] It's a story that
begins with the number 11.
- Young Jeff Bezos was,
when you look backwards,
kind of a pretty extraordinary
kid from the beginning.
- Jeff Bezos has a
great origin story
where he loved "Star Trek" and
even named his dog after it.
- He's a kid of the '60s.
He's growing up as the Apollo
rockets are sending men
into orbit, and
ultimately in 1969,
sending three Americans to
the surface of the moon.
- [Neil Armstrong] That's
one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
- And so Bezos was inspired
by what was possible
if America put its mind to it
and pressed to go further
than any man had gone before.
- [Host] Bezos studied
computer science at Princeton,
and in the early 1990s,
joined a Wall Street firm
that was using new technology
to analyze financial markets.
It's there that he
stumbled on a magic number
that would change
his life, 2,300.
(cash register rings)
- Jeff Bezos was asked
to do some research
into the early
commercial internet.
The internet had been around
for more than 20 years,
but it was only then
in the early '90s
that people were
allowed to buy and sell
and do commercial
activity on the internet.
- [Host] Bezos learns
that the worldwide web
grew 2300% in a single year.
- And so in doing this
research, Jeff Bezos realizes
that this is an extraordinary
business opportunity.
- [Host] He quits his job
and heads to the West Coast,
where he'll find the number 22.
(bicycle bell rings)
- There's a guy in San Francisco
putting a list up there,
Craig's List, and somebody
else is figuring out a way
to connect people online.
And that eventually becomes
something called Match.com.
Something called eBay
has just shown up.
And so he really finds
himself on the West Coast
at the very beginning of
this internet-based culture.
- [Host] The budding
entrepreneur has 60 meetings
with potential investors,
mostly family and friends.
He asks each one for
$50,000 in exchange
for a 1% stake in
his e-commerce dream.
- Jeff Bezos is charismatic,
is warm, is gregarious.
He's a compelling storyteller.
- [Host] 38 turned him down,
but 22 says yes, they're in.
- At the very beginning, Amazon,
like a good number of companies,
actually does start
in a suburban garage.
- He starts thinking maybe
he'll sell some books,
but actually in the back of
his mind the plan is always
to be the master of
all media online.
- [Host] And to do that,
he harnesses the power
of the number nine.
- A book can't
break in the mail.
It's pretty low cost to ship.
It can't be the wrong
size, unlike a shoe.
And so in this early
stage of the .com boom,
this was the perfect
product to really test
and grow a market.
- [Host] Once Amazon
receives an order,
they turn to a wholesaler.
Only problem, there's
a 10 book minimum.
Since Amazon doesn't have the
sales volume to buy 10 copies-
- [Man] Think Jeff, think!
- [Host] Bezos looks
for a loophole.
- [Man] Oh, lichens!
- [Host] He finds it
in an out-of-stock book
on lichens listed
in the catalog.
Bezos orders nine
copies plus the one book
for the Amazon customer.
Since the nine copies of
the lichen book not in stock
still count towards
the 10 book minimum,
Bezos ends up
paying for only one.
The lichen loophole is just
one tactic Bezos would exploit
to grow the company
and its profits.
- E-commerce is new,
it is important,
and that's why people
are so interested in it.
But it will become an
important part of the economy.
- There is such demand
and enthusiasm out there
for buying what he's selling
and the way he's selling it.
- [Host] And it's all about
predicting the future.
Your future.
- Bezos hires these
crack engineers not just
to build the platform
for buying and selling,
but to build into it
features that tell people,
if you bought this book,
other people who bought
the same book you bought also
bought these other books.
We're very familiar with those
recommendation algorithms
now, but this in the '90s
was a novel and important driver
of those numbers going up.
- And then he goes all-in.
- And they went through this
whole process of expanding
from books to other
areas, jewelry, toys,
and you can buy just about
anything you want on Amazon.
- [Host] By 2021, Amazon
is valued at $1.6 trillion.
And those 22 people who
backed him at the start,
if they hung onto their 1%,
that initial investment
is now worth $7 billion.
As for the other 38
- I wish I bought that
stock in the '90s,
even though I was probably
only eight years old.
- You wonder, how much
richer can they get?
But if people keep using
Amazon to buy goods
and people keep
buying Amazon stock
because the
company's doing well,
then Jeff Bezos' net
worth will keep going up.
- [Host] But Bezos has
another trick up his sleeve,
because he doesn't
just earn billions,
he knows how to keep them.
- So in 2018, they make over
$230 billion in global revenue.
Guess what their tax bill was?
Zero.
- [Host] Zero, zip, nada.
- They don't pay a cent, and
in fact, they get rebates.
- [Host] In 2019, Amazon
receives a federal tax refund
of $129 million.
Working the tax structure
to his advantage is
just one example of
Bezos' billionaire genius.
Another is his relentless
emphasis on productivity
and penny-pinching.
- Jeff Bezos is worth
upwards of $180 billion,
but he still is famous
for the frugality
that he has maintained
within Amazon.
The door desks, the pizza
parties instead of fancy trips
to Hawaii for his employees,
his message is discipline,
and his attention
to the numbers,
that frugality is definitely
baked into the culture.
- There's no question to how
Jeff Bezos revolutionized
how we consume.
At the same time, he's
building a $500 million yacht-
- [Man] Only 500 million?
- While fighting
against his employees
to receive some
sort of higher wage
and better healthcare
and even unionization,
which kind of seems
like a super villain.
(laughs maniacally)
- I'm really curious about
what the future holds
for Jeff Bezos, what will
he do with his fortune?
Will he follow in the path
of other mega billionaires
and become a mega
philanthropist?
- [Host] By definition,
a billionaire stands out
from the crowd, but it turns
out Jeff Bezos is a standout
even among the super rich.
223 of them to be precise.
- We currently have a pledge
that many billionaires
and multi-millionaires in
the United States have signed
to give away half of their
wealth before their death.
- [Host] As of 2021, 223
of the world's richest
have signed the pledge.
- Jeff Bezos has
not signed that.
- I hope he ends up
reshaping his legacy,
because right now he's
not seen too fondly
in the public eye.
(crowd boos)
- [Host] Instead, some of
Bezos' purchases include,
house in Medina,
Washington for $25 million,
house in Washington, D.C.,
27,000 square feet, 23 million.
Private jet, 65 million.
The Clock of the Long Now,
built inside a Texas mountain,
it will tell time for the
next 10,000 years, 42 million.
The Warner estate in
Beverly Hills, 165 million.
And of course, not
forgetting that rocket.
(majestic music)
- How it felt?
Oh my God!
(audience laughs)
My expectations for high,
and they were
dramatically exceeded.
- If I had like that much money,
I would for sure go to space.
- I would definitely go.
- I personally would
love to go to space.
I want to go to the ISS.
- [Host] But far from
being a passion project,
this is a rock solid
business venture.
- Bezos has been
financing Blue Origin
through the sale of
his Amazon stock,
so the first company is
helping finance the second.
- I want to thank
every Amazon employee
and every Amazon customer,
'cause you guys paid
for all of this.
(audience applauds)
- Just recently, he's
put out a lottery
so that people can
get tickets to go
on a ride on his
Blue Origin rocket.
- Um, $300,000 a ticket?
- 300 grand for a
ticket to space,
it actually sounds like
a pretty good deal.
Like that's like a
sixth of a Bugatti.
- Do I have that?
No, will I ever have that?
Probably also no.
- [Host] If one of the
secrets of today's super rich
is the ability to
predict the future,
what did the future look like
more than a hundred years ago?
The late 19th century
was America's gilded age
when a handful of cunning
businessmen figured out how
to profit from the
wave of economic growth
sweeping America.
- When I think Rockefeller,
JP Morgan and Carnegie,
I think they're all like
tourist attractions in New York.
- So they're the inspiration
behind the game of Monopoly?
Of course they are,
yeah, that makes sense.
- The power that Mark
Zuckerberg, that Elon Musk,
that Jeff Bezos, that
Bill Gates have today
is probably very
similar to the power
that those men had
back in their time.
- [Host] They were known
as the robber barons.
- You don't have to
be a historian to know
how robber barons got
their names, robber?
- [Host] But one man's robber
is another man's
successful entrepreneur.
Take JP Morgan, a man
with a nose for business.
- JP Morgan's physical presence
was said to be overpowering.
His shoulders were huge.
He would always be
smoking these huge cigars.
He was a big guy with a big
voice and a very ugly nose.
Scary guy.
- [Host] Unlike Bezos, he
doesn't predict the future,
he simply wants a slice of it.
Or in JP Morgan's case, because
he's a big guy, 112 slices.
(upbeat cabaret music)
- The age of the robber
barons is a story about scale
and speed that U.S. business
hadn't experienced before.
- [Host] Capitalizing on
unregulated growing markets,
men like JP Morgan wrote
their own cutthroat rules
to amass ungodly fortunes.
- So America has just gone
through the Civil War,
and from 1870 to 1900,
there's this incredible
30 year peace in this country.
Meanwhile, Europe is at
each other's throats,
and all of a sudden
America has this chance
to export a lot of goods.
The railroads are going crazy.
- [Host] From 1870 To 1890,
the amount of railroad
track in the U.S. triples.
- [Conductor] All aboard!
- [Host] It was the
equivalent of the .com boom,
when railroad companies
represented 80%
of the listings on the
New York Stock Exchange.
- There were all these companies
that were building
parallel lines,
investing massive amounts
of upfront capital,
and then competing with one
another for the same traffic.
- [Host] With a nose like that,
JP Morgan could smell
a deal in the making.
- JP Morgan?
Wall Street.
- Banks, lots of banks.
- That guy was born
in a pile of money.
- He kind of was the original
Wall Street financier
in the modern sense,
someone who uses his power
and his personal
connections to persuade
other wealthy investors and
financiers to come together
and collectively become even
more powerful and wealthy.
- [Host] July, 1884,
Jersey City pier.
America's top banker JP
Morgan brings competing
railroad execs to a mob-like
meet aboard his luxury yacht.
- So this is the backdrop
for a day of sailing
and schmoozing and
drinking and smoking.
- [Host] Morgan's plan is to
get feuding railroad execs
to end their hostilities.
If they don't, he won't
lend them another penny.
- JP Morgan is not a
warm and fuzzy guy,
but he is an extraordinarily
savvy businessman.
He's kind of the organizer
of the party, so to speak.
- [Host] Morgan wants to
put a stop to competition
and parallel rail lines, but
he also needs the companies
to stay in business so
they repay their debts.
Somehow, the mighty banker
must convince his guests
everyone involved will benefit.
- He says, "What you all
are up to is not a way
to maximize profit or
to maximize this market.
The way to do so is to
bring railroads together,
to consolidate, create
one more powerful entity,
and then we'll all do better."
- [Host] Sailing 50
miles up the Hudson
and then back down
towards New York Harbor,
Morgan refuses to dock until
an agreement is reached.
- [Man] Put her there,
Mack, we got a deal.
- [Host] Corsair finally
ties up before sunset
and a mighty merger is born.
- Many different railroad
companies becomes one.
And Morgan has a stake
in every bit of it.
All of the stock prices
of the participating
railroads go up.
Wall Street loves this.
So does JP Morgan's
bank account.
- [JP] (laughs
greedily) All for JP!
- [Host] What's more,
JP Morgan demands a seat
on the board of every
railroad company.
This way, he keeps
an eye on management
and protects his bottom line.
The railroad magnate
applied similar tactics
in other sectors of the economy,
to equally stupendous results.
- He would go out, target
specific industries,
and start buying up all
the individual players
in the industries, and then
he would eviscerate them,
take them apart and
put them together
better than they were before.
- [Host] That's how JP
Morgan buys his 112 slices
of the future.
At his peak, JP Morgan sits
on the board of directors
for 112 companies, controls
four out of the six
large rail networks,
and oversees 40%
of all capital invested
in the U.S. economy.
- Morgan was unquestionably
the most powerful presence
in the United States by the
end of the 19th century.
The United States economy
depended on his bank.
- [Host] If JP Morgan
was the muscle,
John D. Rockefeller was
the brainy robber baron.
While Morgan had the power
of his bank behind him,
Rockefeller had just
eight cents to play with,
but he knew how eight
cents can make a fortune.
- If you looked at John D.
Rockefeller's net worth today
in inflation-adjusted terms,
it would be something
like $400 billion.
He would be even richer
than anybody alive now.
- [Host] The story begins
in 1870 Cleveland, Ohio.
Kerosene fuels nearly every
light in the factories,
businesses, and wealthy
households across America.
- Before the automobile,
the most valuable byproduct
of crude oil was kerosene,
which was used for light
in the era before electricity
and widespread electrification.
- [Host] 24-year-old John D.
Rockefeller has saved his wages
to invest in his first refinery.
Seven years and many
refineries later,
he takes a big gamble
with eight cents.
- So he slashes the price
to eight cents a gallon
and drives everybody
else out of the business.
They cannot afford to compete
with them at that price.
- [Host] Rockefeller
can afford to lose money
selling kerosene below cost
because he's raking in
a fortune refining it.
- He's not just the seller,
he's also the refiner.
- Everybody else has to
get out of the business,
and then he can
buy their companies
and he can start selling
it for $7 a gallon.
It's an outrageous ploy.
- It's not the first time
we've seen price fixing
in human history.
What makes it significant
is it's controlling
every point in the supply chain.
- [Host] By 1885,
Rockefeller and Standard Oil
have a stranglehold on 90%
of America's oil
refining market.
They own 20,000 wells
4,000 miles of pipeline,
and employ over 100,000 people.
Profits are staggering.
(cash register rings)
- He controlled every
aspect of that business,
from digging in the dirt to
bringing it out to refining it
to selling it himself
as Standard Oil,
that was what he did.
He vertically integrated
the oil business.
- [Host] But trouble's
brewing for the robber barons
as public opinion
turns against them.
In the eyes of many,
robber barons like Rockefeller
are simply too rich.
- He was becoming
one of the richest
and most powerful
men on the planet.
- [Host] So he hides his
wealth behind the number 2,667.
- A trust is an idea
that Rockefeller's
lawyers came up with.
- Essentially creating an
overarching umbrella board
that's comprised
of representatives
from the member companies,
but as a singular entity,
and together collectively
controls a market,
is able to control prices,
control the market dynamics,
and make the profit.
- [Host] Rockefeller
and his partners
formed the Standard Oil Trust.
They swap their individual
company holdings
for shares in the trust.
In Rockefeller's case,
that amounts to 2,267
shares in total.
- I'm thinking, I don't even
know what these guys look like,
so all I can picture
is like the guy
on Monopoly with the hat.
- I think like cigars
and mustaches like this
and some men sitting in
a room just being like,
"Oh, money, oh, we have
it, what shall we do?"
- What immediately
comes to mind is
like a particular contempt
for low-class people.
I can see it being spoken
over an expensive breakfast
being served by the help
at the Rockefeller mansion.
- [Host] By the late 1880s,
the pressure to do something
about Standard Oil and
other monopolies mounts.
- There's a real power
imbalance, so it's no surprise
that there was a rising
political momentum
to change the way things
work, to make the government
more powerful as a regulatory
body to break up monopolies.
- [Host] In 1890 the Sherman
Antitrust Act becomes law.
It curbs monopolies
and bans price fixing.
The richest man in America
suddenly finds
himself in hot water.
- It was very clear to
everybody he had too much money.
He had too many companies.
- [Host] So he outsmarts
the regulators.
He dissolves the trust in Ohio,
but keeps operating
it from New York.
Then he reincorporate Standard
Oil as a holding company
in yet another state.
- Throughout history, businesses
have always been great
at staying ahead of
government regulation.
A business will do something,
make a lot of money,
create a monopoly, then the
government will react to that,
create a law, and then the
business will do something else
that the government
hasn't made a law for.
- [Host] The government
finally catches up.
In 1911, the courts order
Standard Oil dismantled,
but Rockefeller's so smart,
he isn't just one step
ahead of the game, he's 34.
- It's one of the few
big American companies
that's forced to
break up, actually.
Different pieces have devolved
into 34 different entities.
But here's the kicker.
John D. Rockefeller actually
ends up making more money
because he retains
a stake in all
of the different pieces of it.
- [Host] All 34
different pieces.
By the time of
Rockefeller's death in 1937,
his wealth acquainted to 1.5%
of America's gross
domestic product.
If he were to own
1.5% of the GDP today,
he'd have more than double
Jeff Bezos's net worth.
- The robber baron set the stage
for the mega rich of today.
They too were high-tech
moguls, right?
The high-tech industries
then were railroads
and oil and steel.
They took those
technologies, exploited them,
took advantage of general
lack of regulation
that allowed them to
innovate, to grow large,
to do what they wished.
- [Host] But it's not
just the regulators
who are turning against the
robber barons, so is the public.
- The phrase "robber
baron" was the phrase used
to derogatorily
insult those people
in the latter half of the
19th century in America
who would steal money from
everybody else legally.
The robber barons
are legal thieves.
And so at the same
time as they gathered
all this money for themselves,
there's a tremendous backlash
among late 19th century
media and late 19th century
progressive politicians
saying these people are bad.
- [Host] So how does a smart guy
like Rockefeller
keep his fortune?
By giving half a billion
dollars of it away.
- Rockefeller gets very
interested in funding medicine.
He gets very interested in all
sorts of philanthropic ideas.
And all of a sudden,
public opinion
begins to switch about him.
H goes from arch
villain to somebody who,
"Oh, we're so glad
he's with us."
- [Host] His fortune helped
found the University of Chicago,
fund important medical research,
and establish major
philanthropic institutions.
- I feel like the only
thing you can do apart
from sit in a pool of your
own money is philanthropy.
- They probably
realized they have
to balance the karmic
ledger a little bit.
Like for sure, Bill
Gates had to cure malaria
to make up for Windows Vista.
- Of course, the crazy
rich turned to philanthropy
in the later years
of their life.
They've already partied it
out and did all the drugs.
You try to score last minute
points for the afterlife
so you end up going upstairs
instead of downstairs.
(upbeat music)
- [Host] There's
brains, there's brawn,
and then there's $240
million worth of charm.
- Andrew Carnegie was
a great personality.
He's very different than JP
Morgan or John D. Rockefeller.
He's willing to play to
the crowd a little more.
- He was just a great
PR person for himself.
He's one of these guys,
everybody loved him.
He was great to be around,
he was a real charmer.
- [Host] A poor
Scottish immigrant,
Andrew Carnegie epitomizes
the American dream.
- He comes to the United
States as a penniless immigrant
and works his way up to
becoming one of the richest
and most powerful
men on the planet.
That rags to riches
story is something
that has immediate appeal
to the American media,
to American people.
- [Host] After a start
in the railroads,
Carnegie invested in steel.
Fusing innovative
manufacturing with lower wages
and strict accounting, Carnegie
undersells the competition
to become crazy rich.
- Andrew Carnegie was a rich man
with full control
of an industry.
- [Host] In 1900, Carnegie's
steel profits amounted
to $40 million.
- [Man] Wow!
- [Host] Carnegie's share?
A cool $25 million.
(cash register rings)
A year later, he sold
his company to JP Morgan
and made $240 million overnight,
the equivalent of
$6.8 billion today.
- Keep in mind, this is
before a federal income tax.
So they're making lots of money
and the IRS isn't taking
anything away from it yet.
- [Host] Morgan
bullied the opposition,
Rockefeller outsmarted the feds,
Carnegie had friends
in high places.
One friend in particular.
Hallelujah ♪
- American Protestantism
tends to think
that wealth is a
sign of hard work
and that hard work is something
that should be rewarded.
Wealth is a sign of God's grace.
- Andrew Carnegie wrote this
essay, "The Gospel of Wealth,"
talking about how
great it was to be rich
and how everybody should be
rich, and how if you were rich,
that meant you
were closer to God.
(ethereal music)
- His "Gospel of Wealth" was
a celebration of capitalism,
a celebration of great fortunes,
but also was one that
put the moral imperative
on those capitalists to do more
than just be really
successful with business.
- [Host] At 65, he decides
it's time to share his fortune.
- As we all know, a rich
man can't get into heaven,
but I guess if you
give it all away
you go straight up
to the pearly gates.
- [Host] Carnegie donated $350
million to charitable causes.
- [Man] Whoa!
- [Host] He funded more
than 2,500 public libraries
across the globe.
1,679 of them were built
in the United States.
- Well, Rockefeller and
Morgan and Carnegie,
they were vilified,
but at the same time,
I think people
underestimate the fact
that they were also
seen as heroes.
- Andrew Carnegie
probably comes the closest
to like a Bruce
Wayne type character
where he literally believed
that with great wealth
and great power comes
great responsibility.
- Despite themselves, people
admire those with power,
those with riches,
even if they know
they may be morally suspect.
- [Host] Bending the rules
to your own advantage
is one way to become super rich.
But how crazy would it be
if you are the one
writing the rule book?
That's the genius
of Jakob Fugger.
You've probably
never heard of him,
but back in the 1500s, he wrote
the billionaires playbook.
- Listen to that name.
- Is it Fugger with g's, yeah?
Okay.
- Jakob Fugger, I gotta make
sure I say that correctly.
I feel like you could
really mess that name up.
- I pity any woman who
has to take his name,
especially if they
become a mother.
- [Host] A better name
for him would be Mr. 3%.
After training with
Venetian bankers,
Jakob Fugger gets
his first windfall
during a mining boom in Austria.
Then he funds a risky
Hapsburg conquest
and uses the spoils to establish
a powerful banking network.
- During the Renaissance,
and kind of like today,
when you have money,
you have more influence
than a lot of people
who do not have money.
- [Host] The banker's
efficiency gets him
on the Vatican's
radar, and soon Fugger
is handling the transfer
of plate collections
into papal coffers, while
making a 3% cut each time.
Yet somehow Jakob
Fugger wants more.
- I think that greed snowballs.
And so if you constantly
get what you want,
you're going to continue
to crave more and more.
- [Host] So Fugger ups
his game to the number 10.
Pope Leo the 10th, to be exact.
- In the 1500's,
the position of pope
was as political as
it was religious.
The pope had influence in
every aspect of society.
- [Host] 1514 Germany, an
ambitious young nobleman,
Albrecht Von Hohenzollern,
desperately wants the powerful
post of Archbishop of Mainz.
- [Albrecht] First Mainz,
and then the world!
- [Host] To get the job,
he'll need to seriously
grease the palms
of Leo the 10th.
- [Leo] Popee needs
a new pair of shoes.
- [Host] Enter Jakob Fugger.
(man wolf whistles)
He sees an opening to
curry favor with the pope
and an influential
aristocrat turn clergy.
- [Man] Mmm, hubba hubba.
- The bankers who are
getting closest to the church
are the ones who
are getting richest.
- [Host] Fugger
lends young Albrecht
a whopping 34,000 florins,
or $3,624,400 today.
- I mean, it's a lot of money.
- [Host] Dream job or not,
Albrecht has a
hefty loan to repay.
- [Albrecht] Eureka!
- [Host] So he
comes up with a scam
to divert the sums Christians
donate to pave the way
to salvation, known
as indulgences.
Only Leo the 10th has the
power to grant indulgences
with papal letters.
(man whistling)
- Around 1250, Pope Innocent
came up with this idea
of corporate personhood, that
the church was a corporation
that had the same
rights as an individual.
And that individual,
of course, was Jesus.
Hallelujah ♪
All the church's money was
part of the body of Christ.
So therefore, if you would
like to wipe away your sin
and be clean and newborn
in the face of the church,
you can give money
to the church,
because money is helping
the body of Christ.
It's helping the
corporate person.
And so they started
selling indulgences,
forgiveness for
sin through money.
- [Host] And Mr. 3%
now becomes Mr. 50%.
Pope Leo suggests the perfect
cover to fleece the faithful,
an upgrade to St.
Peter's Basilica.
Soon, the money is rolling in.
50% goes to the Pope and
the other half to Fugger.
But by 1517, public
confidence has begun to erode.
- [Man] We are in for it now!
- Indulgences really undermined
people's faith in the church
because indulgences suggested
then that you didn't have
to actually follow the
dictates set forth by Jesus
in the Bible if you were willing
to pay to sin, basically.
- I want to know how much
these indulgences cost,
because I've done some stuff.
I'm willing to pay for a little
get out of hell free card.
- Fugger had the whole
evil, rich person down pat,
because, in my opinion,
indulgences are
just paying to pray,
which is something,
last time I checked,
you just do for free, but no,
he made it into a business.
- There is a backlash to the
extraordinary money power
of the Catholic church.
- [Host] The robber barons
faced the antitrust laws,
but Fugger has the whole
Protestant reformation
to contend with.
- Every kid in school learns
about the Protestant
Reformation,
Martin Luther
nailing his 95 Thesis
onto the church door in protest.
- We are protesting,
we are protestants.
We are going against
the Catholic model
in which money buys redemption.
- [Host] So what does Fugger do?
He rewrites the rule book.
- The Bible is very clear
about charging interest.
Don't do it, not allowed
to charge interest.
Now, this is a problem,
because as the church
becomes a multinational
corporation,
they are constantly
dealing with mortgages
and credit and bankers.
- [Host] Church officials and
bankers like Fugger use fees
and penalties to sneak around
the sin of charging interest.
- They have all these
fancy names in Latin
for these contractual ideas
which allow money to grow.
It's interest, but it's
not called interest.
- [Host] It all
makes bookkeeping and
contracts a nightmare,
but no one dares to question
the Bible except Jakob Fugger.
- He insists, "We're just
gonna be done with it
and we're gonna say it's okay."
- [Host] Having already
rewritten the rule book,
Fugger and the Pope
rewrite the teaching
of the Bible itself to
legitimize interest.
- [Leo] Good to go.
- [Host] Now, it's only
a sin if the loan is made
without labor, cost or risk.
Since every loan involves
at least one of the three,
Fugger and the church
are off the hook.
- [Jakob] I'm free!
- [Host] The banker's
salvation is assured,
and debt financing takes off.
- What we see by the
end of the Middle Ages,
for the first time in
the history of the world
the bankers start
taking the upper hand.
- Our economy runs
on borrowed money.
The U.S. government is
borrowed to the hilt.
Companies borrow money
whenever they can.
And people borrow
money to buy houses.
I mean, everybody borrows money,
so debt financing fuels
our everyday economy.
- [Man] More for me.
- [Host] Jakob Fugger was the
first European millionaire
on record, by the end
of his life in 1525,
his assets totaled nearly 400
billion in today's dollars.
- Loans, interest and
credit are staples
of modern day capitalism.
Thanks, Fugger.
- [Host] The industrialists
of the 19th century
were called robber
barons as an insult.
But what if you were a Baron
for real, and a robber?
Meet William, a medieval knight
for whom the only number that
counts is the number one.
In the 11th century,
William pulled off a heist
that would make
him a billionaire
and shape British
society for a millennium.
- William is also known
as William the Bastard.
- [Host] It's a
nickname that sticks
for the illegitimate
son of Robert the First,
Duke of Normandy.
- He is on a certain sense
part of the aristocracy,
but on another side,
he's not at all.
He is completely on the outside.
- Throughout history,
we always blame children
for the actions
of their parents.
It is not a child's fault that
he is born out of wedlock.
- [Host] In 1035, Robert dies,
bequeathing land and title
to seven-year-old William.
Out of the woodwork come
the angry relatives,
refusing to bow
to a bastard duke.
- Ooh, I saw something
similar to that
in that historical
documentary "Game of Thrones."
- I believe they're all inbred.
Like, they're
super, super inbred.
So I'm picturing
like a dangley eye
and just like one leg and
it's like half smaller
than the rest of his limbs.
- I don't think anybody
would be jealous
of William's childhood,
because everybody wanted
to kill him all of the time.
- [Host] But William the Bullied
wants a different moniker.
He wants to be
William the First.
- What does it tell me
about his personality?
Must've been a cool dude.
- Kind of sounds like a guy
in my eighth grade class.
And to be honest with you,
he was kind of (bleeped).
- So William grows up
in this kind of really
fraught environment.
But one thing he knows
is that his cousin
is Edward the Confessor,
he's in charge of England.
And Edward the
Confessor has no kids.
- [Host] Edward has promised
William the English throne.
If William becomes
King William the First,
he will shed his bastard status.
- And so when Edward
the Confessor dies,
William sees his chance.
He can go across the
channel with some
of his Norman followers and
take what is rightfully his.
- [Host] Before
William even sets sail,
Edwards' brother-in-law
Harold usurps the throne.
Livid, William sets out
for revenge on King Harold.
The 24-year-old Norman
spends seven months
preparing for war.
In September 1066,
William commands 600 ships
carrying 8,000 soldiers and
sails for England's shores.
The outcome would shape a
nation for the next 1,000 years,
determining not only
who ruled the land,
but also who owned it.
October 13, 1066.
Harold's battle-weary
troops arrive
in the woods outside Hastings.
They're exhausted after
repelling a Viking attack
in the north and
marching 250 miles south
to meet the Normans.
The next morning, the
Normans charge Harold's army.
They draw the English out
of their defensive line.
The fight drags on, but
William rallies his men
and they cut the English down.
By nightfall, the battlefield
is soaked in blood
and the king himself
is struck dead.
The victory earns
William a new nickname.
- So William the First
becomes William the Conqueror.
- [Host] On Christmas Day 1066,
William is crowned
king of England,
and that's only the start.
- He doesn't just conquer
the land or the people,
he conquers everything.
And he doesn't just ask
to be paid a tribute.
- [William] My due.
- He says, "Everything
that's yours is now mine."
- [William] Also mine.
- People don't respond
particularly well to that.
- England falls into
chaos and violence.
That's fine with him.
William is good with
chaos and violence,
and he sets about step-by-step
calming each little uprising.
- He gets rid of all
of the current noblemen
and replaces them
with all his own.
- [William] I dub
thee Sir Montague.
- [Host] As the new number one,
William loots
269,000 landholdings
from some 4,000 English Lords.
- [Man] Hey, that's my land!
- [Host] Then redistributes
the territory and wealth
among 190 loyal
Norman followers.
But how to keep track
of so much wealth?
For William, it's easy.
He uses the number 888.
- William the Conqueror needs
to understand his kingdom.
And he also would
like more money.
- [William] Keep it coming.
- So he really sends out
a bunch of accountants,
and they count every
single acre of land,
every single animal,
every single serf
and laborer in all of England.
Nothing like this has
ever been done before.
- [Woman] Those are my
chickens, leave them alone!
- [Host] December 1085.
King Williams' royal
commissioners fan
out across England,
surveying 268,984 people
and 13,418 settlements.
They track and
itemize everything
in a massive ledger
called the Doomsday Book.
- This 888-page
oak-bound huge book
with everything he owns.
And in today's money,
it looks as though
he probably owns more
than $200 billion.
He is rich.
- [Host] The book is a
priceless historical document
and a shameless record
of a nationwide heist.
20 years after his conquest,
the sum of English real
estate came to 75,000 pounds,
roughly 1 trillion pounds today,
or 1.37 trillion U.S. dollars.
William and his family
are listed as owning 17%
of the plunder.
- History and numbers,
ooh, look at that.
- William the First
is one of those guys
that shows up and goes, "Hi,
this place is real nice.
It's mine."
- He sounds like a tyrant.
I mean, he's just stealing,
he's just stealing.
That's what that's
called, so he's a thief.
- You get that information,
credit where credit's due.
You put in the work, but again,
I think you have to
be absolutely insane.
- This shows once again
that is all about counting
and accounting.
You can't be rich if you
can't count your money.
- [Host] King William's
selective redistribution
of English territory was
so effective that much
of Britain is still
held by a handful
of uber-wealthy landowners.
- His money and his conquest
has reverberations today
in terms of ownership,
privilege, education,
and culture,
and imperialist thought.
That is a straight line
through that we can trace back
a thousand years to
William the Conqueror.
- [Host] So if you're sitting
pretty in the UK today,
you could very well
be a descendant
of the rapacious
Norman invader class.
In 2012, fewer than
1% of the population
owned 70% of the land.
160,000 land owners own
two-thirds of Britain.
- It's pretty wild.
There's been so little
social mobility in England
that the people that
were installed into
positions of wealth
and power a thousand
years ago are still
in positions of wealth
and power today.
- [Host] With so much valuable
real estate concentrated
in so few hands, Britain
runs a close second to Brazil
as the country with the most
unequal land distribution
in the world.
- It's just unfathomable,
I don't understand.
It's nonsensical to me.
- Well, I guess
that's just an example
of history is written
by the victors.
- [Host] Whether it's
a savvy tech giant,
a shrewd industrialist,
a clever banker,
or a bold conqueror,
each and every one
of the crazy rich seized the
opportunities of their day
to build colossal
financial empires.
- History repeats itself.
The billionaires and wealthy
of today are the second coming
of the Carnegies, the
Morgans and the Rockefellers.
- [Host] At times brilliant,
at times ruthless,
but always daring, these
entrepreneurs decrypted
human nature to monetize
it in astonishing ways.
- The wealthiest
people in history seem
to have a window into the
future to be one step ahead.
I mean, anybody can be rich
if they have tomorrow's
horse racing results.
That's all we need.
These guys kind of
had it in their head.
- To become the next Jeff
Bezos, what is that gonna take?
$100 million used to get
you onto the Forbes 400.
Now it won't get
you anywhere close.
- [Host] The number
of billionaires
around the globe is increasing,
and so is their total wealth.
- There were almost 500 new
billionaires on our 2021 list,
and we calculated that there
was a new billionaire minted
every 17 hours.
Basically, you had a lot
of new wealth in China,
and we had a lot of wealth
creation in the United States.
- [Host] Who will be the next
generation of uber-wealthy,
and how will they
make their fortunes?
- The future of extraordinary
wealth is hard to see,
but I think Americans have
such a longstanding fascination
with the super wealthy, I don't
think that's gonna go away.
- All really rich
people have in common.
Money.
- Pompous, evil, mean, hair
plugs, sad, daddy issues.
That's two words.
- Weird (bleeped)
kinks, probably.
I don't know for sure,
but it has to be expensive
and it has to be probably
something that's shipped
within three to
five business days.
(upbeat music)