How Much Money The Medici Family Really Had
Whether you're a fan of history, Renaissance art, banking, or pop culture, you've probably bumped into the Medici family. As Carrie Hojnicki of Business Insider tells us, the ultra-rich Florentine banking family basically funded the Renaissance. They founded arguably the most influential bank of their era. They bought votes, and gave money to the arts, They gained influence and money left and right. Catherine de' Medici became the Queen of France, and as History tells us, the family produced no less than four popes. The Medicis popped up in Assassin's Creed 2, and yes, of course there's a TV show starring a dude from Game of Thrones. They were and still are a pretty big name, is what we're saying.
Still, as significant as their cultural and historical influence has been, in the end they were bankers. Therefore, one can't help but wonder what they were hoarding in their personal vaults. Let's take a look at how much money the Medici family actually had.
The Medicis were very, very rich
It's probably no surprise that the Medicis had money to spare after the family turned from their original medical profession — hey, we just now got the whole "Medici" thing — to banking. Business Insider estimates their first banking guy, Giovanni di Micci de' Medici (1360-1429), was personally worth as much as $36 million, which was more than enough to make him the richest man in Florence. As the family's banking kingdom grew and started attracting actual kings among its customers, their influence also grew and their own pockets got deeper. As Forbes tells us, the family's financial activities peaked during the reign of Cosimo de' Medici, whose death in 1464 marked the start of their slow decline.
Influential and wealthy as the Medicis were it's difficult to find out precisely how much they were worth at the height of their powers. Regardless, David S. Chang of the Art of Thinking Smart has made an attempt to estimate their net worth as part of his Forbes-inspired list of the richest people of all time. According to Chang, the Medicis, as a family, are the 17th richest people of all time, with an estimated worth of $129 billion (adjusted for inflation).