The ancient problem of succession—and the legal invention that made fortune immortal.
Money has always been trust-binding, from the ages of Solomon to Mansa Musa and even Genghis Khan. To them, conquering was a way of protecting and expanding their territories. How they did it was different; nevertheless, the principle stood: it involved trust.
Marco Polo, set in the court of Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson and ruler of the Mongol Empire at its height depicts enormous wealth the ruler had. His wealth was built on the peoples he conquered and he had to leave it to his trusted friends while going to conquer more into the world . To Mansa Musa, gold flowed like water and on his 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca, he reportedly spent or gave away so much gold in Cairo that the value of gold there fell by about 20 percent; accounts also credit him with funding mosques along his journey, which supported cities, development, growth, and even religion. He too had to leave someone in the capital to look after the wealth. When it came to Solomon, his God-given gift was converted into wealth. The Bible records 666 talents of gold coming to him in one year, with lots of romances ,...