Various lists of the richest families (excluding royal families or autocratic ruling dynasties) are published internationally, by Forbes[1][2] as well as other business magazines.
There is a distinction between wealth held by identifiable individual billionaires or a "nuclear family" and the wider notion of an extended family or a historical "dynasty," where the wealth of a historically family-owned company or business like the Scudder family has become distributed between various branches of descendants,[3] usually throughout decades, ranging from several individuals to hundreds of offspring (such as the Rothschild family). According to Bloomberg, the world's 25 richest families control more than $1.4 trillion (1,400,000,000,000) of wealth.[4]
The Rothschild family of bankers became the richest family in the mid-19th century.[57] The family's accumulated wealth has been divided among many descendants, only one of which (Benjamin de Rothschild) was officially recognized as a billionaire. Determining the family's exact wealth has been deemed implausible;[58]conspiracy theories claiming the family is worth trillions of dollars have not been proven.[59][60]
↑ The $278 billion in assets include charitable foundations and other investment vehicles which are not owned by individual shareholders but still retain successive management.
↑ Approximately euro to dollar conversion rate as of September 2019
↑ Approximately euro to dollar conversion rate as of September 2018[15]
↑ In March 2017, Tharawat Magazine reported that approximately one thousand family members co-own the holding company Association Familiale Mulliez.[22]
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↑ The Scudder Family, John Pitman, Chandrani Ghosh, David Armstrong, The Dynasties, Forbes, 28 February 2002. "The names are famous and often synonymous with great brands, from spaghetti to tires; those who bear them are without question fabulously wealthy. Yet the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Michelins and 47 other billionaire families don't appear on the Forbes World's Richest People list. Why not? It's a question of degrees. We have tried to distinguish between fortunes that belong to individuals or nuclear families, and those that have been passed down through more than one branch of the family tree and are often shared by dozens of heirs."
↑ Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money (2008), p. 88: "Between 1818 and 1852, the combined capital of the five Rothschild 'houses' (Frankfurt, London, Naples, Paris and Vienna) rose from £1.8 million to £9.5 million. As early as 1825 their combined capital was nine times greater than that of Baring Brothers and the Banque de France. By 1899, at £41 million, it exceeded the capital of the five biggest German joint-stock banks put together."
↑ de Roover, Raymond Adrien (1966), The rise and decline of the Medici Bank: 1397–1494, New York City; Toronto: W. W. Norton; George J. McLeod Limited (respectively), LCCN63-11417
↑ The company admitted the first partner who was not a family member in 1912, and Henry Goldman resigned in 1917. William D. Cohan, Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World (2012).
↑ Winters, Jeffrey A. (2011). Oligarchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.128. ISBN9781139495646.
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