The Richest of the Rich Trivia Quiz

Answer: John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller created Standard Oil in 1870 as a partnership between himself and 5 other men, including his brother William. John received twice as many initial shares as anyone else. Standard Oil became the quintessential example for a horizontal monopoly, controlling at its peak roughly 90% of production and final sales of refined oil in the United States. Finally in 1909 the Justice Department filed suit against Standard Oil for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, and in 1911 it was split into 34 independent companies, including Continental Oil (Conoco), Standard of Indiana (Amoco), Standard of California (Chevron), Standard of New Jersey (Exxon), and Standard of New York (Mobil).

Answer: Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie created the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892, and created a vertical monopoly by owning every process in the steel-making industry, from the iron ore mines to the steel mills. J.P. Morgan noticed how efficient Carnegie's business was, and in 1901 Morgan bought out Carnegie Steel and combined it with Elbert Henry Gary's Federal Steel Company and many small companies to create U.S. Steel. Charles M. Schwab, the president of Carnegie Steel in 1901, negotiated the buyout and was then promoted to president of U.S. Steel.

Carnegie spent the rest of his life giving away his money to libraries, schools, art and science programs, and many other causes. Carnegie Hall was named after him, as were two cities: Carnegie, Pennsylvania and Carnegie, Oklahoma.

Answer: Nicholas II

Nicholas II, nicknamed "Bloody Nicholas" for his role in several controversial events during his reign, was the last member of the Romanov dynasty that ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917. The dynasty was one of the greatest examples of old wealth, passed on from generation to generation.

Nicholas II was thrown into emperor's chair with the untimely death of his father, Alexander III, in 1894, and his inexperience was apparent all the way through his final years, when he took an unprepared Russia into World War I to crushing defeat. He was then overthrown by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and his entire family (including Anastasia) was killed.

Answer: William Vanderbilt

William Vanderbilt began work in the railway business on the Staten Island Railway, and at age 42 became president. In the next 15 years before his father's death he took over several offices, but after Cornelius Vanderbilt's death William controlled all of the Vanderbilt family enterprises. However, at that time William was already 55 years old, and in 1883, at the age of 62, he retired.

Of Cornelius Vanderbilt's other sons, only Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt lived past the age of 25, and he committed suicide following a failed attempt to contest his father's will.

Answer: Osman Ali Khan

Osman Ali Khan became the heir apparent to the throne of Hyderabad when his brother died in 1887. In 1911, Osman's father Mahbub Ali Khan died, leaving Osman to the throne, which he had to abdicate in 1948 following Operation Polo. In 1937, Time magazine ran a story on the Nizam, proclaiming him the richest man in the world and mentioning his contribution of "$100,000,000 cash plus untold supplies and Hyderabad army units" to the British during World War I.

He reportedly had an ostrich-egg sized diamond as a paperweight. Following abdication, he was elected to the new Indian Parliament twice, and when he died in 1967 he was given one of the largest funerals in Indian history.

Answer: Andrew W. Mellon

Andrew W. Mellon created his own lumber company at 17, and joined T. Mellon & Sons (later renamed Mellon Financial) in 1874 at age 19. In 1882 he took over the bank, and soon found himself financing several industries, including virtually creating the coke oven industry by backing Heinrich Koppers.

In 1920, Andrew left Mellon Financial to become the Secretary of the Treasury, and served under Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, becoming the first person in that position to serve under three different administrations. After instituting unpopular tax plans prior to the onset of the Great Depression, Mellon was impeached, but resigned before a vote was taken to remove him from office. By 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt had completely erased Mellon's impact on the tax codes.

Answer: Henry Ford

Franklin Roosevelt went so far as to call Detroit the "Arsenal of Democracy" during World War II in no small part to the Ford Airplane Company mass producing the B-24 Liberator bomber, despite Henry Ford's questionable politics at the time. Henry Ford made it no secret that he admired Adolf Hitler, and Hitler thought the same of Ford. Also, Ford's newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, was very anti-Semitic.

Despite this, both the Ford Motor and Ford Airplane Companies used their mass producing models to create much of the Allied machinery in World War II. Overall, the Ford Motor Company was by far the largest automobile manufacturer in the world.

In 1932, Ford made roughly one-third of the world's cars.

Answer: Marcus Licinius Crassus

Marcus Licinius Crassus originally gained money from proscriptions, which were made to allow one to kill a political enemy and take all of his wealth, and it also forbade any female relative from remarrying. Several times he bought burning houses for a small price and then commanded several hundred men to put it out before much damage was done. Even if the house burned down, he would own the land and could sell it at an inflated value.

Crassus would eventually join Julius Caesar and Pompey in the First Triumvirate of Rome. In 55 BC, Crassus left for Syria to conquer Parthia and its enormous wealth, so that he could add to his fortune and also match the military success that both Pompey and Caesar had achieved. Unfortunately, he was defeated at Carrhae by a numerically inferior force and was killed by being forced to drink a cup of molten gold.

Answer: Basil II the Bulgar-slayer

Basil II the Bulgar-slayer (also Basil the Young or Basil the Porphyrogenitus during his early years) was one of the greatest Byzantine rulers in the empire's history. His father, Romanos II, died unexpectedly in 963, and his mother married a successful general, Nikephoros II.

He was then murdered by his nephew, John I Tzimiskes, in 969, but John died in 976, when Basil II took over. When he finally died after reigning for nearly half of a century, the Byzantine Empire owned most of the Mediterranean border from southern Italy to Syria and half of the border of the Black Sea from the Pruth River to Georgia, and extended all the way to Armenia.

Answer: Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt would later be surpassed in wealth by his son William, but without Cornelius the Vanderbilt family fortune would not exist. He married twice, both times to cousins, and had 13 children, all with his first wife. In 1873, Cornelius gave a $1 million endowment to a new college in Nashville, which was subsequently named Vanderbilt University in his honor, despite the fact Vanderbilt never actually went there himself. Vanderbilt University took the commodore as its mascot also in honor of Cornelius, who was nicknamed "Commodore" in the 1830s because of his successful steamboat operations.