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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 Bardi family of Florence (14th century) The Medici family, as owners of the Medici Bank, the richest family in 15th-century Europe. [61]
Old money is "the inherited wealth of established upper-class families (i.e. gentry, patriciate)" or "a person, family, or lineage possessing inherited wealth". [1] It is a social class of the rich who have been able to maintain their wealth over multiple generations, often referring to perceived members of the de facto aristocracy in societies that historically lack an officially established ...
Portrait of the family Fagoaga Arozqueta, about 1730. Painter unknown. The family was part of the upper class in Mexico City, New Spain. Historically in some cultures, members of an upper class often did not have to work for a living, as they were supported by earned or inherited investments (often real estate), although members of the upper class may have had less actual money than merchants. [4]
The Rothschild family (/ ˈ r ɒ θ (s) tʃ aɪ l d / ROTH(S)-chylde German: [ˈʁoːt.ʃɪlt]) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt.The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, built by Isaak Elchanan Bacharach in Frankfurt in 1567.
Alongside the Welser family, the Fugger family controlled much of the European economy in the sixteenth century and accumulated enormous wealth. The Fuggers held a near monopoly on the European copper market. This banking family replaced the Medici family who influenced all of Europe during the Renaissance. The Fuggers took over many of the ...
Many heads of families also had careers in politics or the military, and the younger sons of the gentry provided a high proportion of the clergy, military officers, and lawyers. Successful burghers often used their accumulated wealth to buy country estates, with the aim of establishing themselves as landed gentry.
The American upper class can be broken down into two groups: people of substantial means with a history of family wealth going back a century or more (called "old money") and families who have acquired their wealth more recently (e.g. fewer than 100 years), sometimes referred to as "new money". [4] [5]
In the rise of European towns in the 12th and 13th centuries, the patriciate, a limited group of families with a special constitutional position, in Henri Pirenne's view, [3] was the motive force. In 19th century Central Europe , the term had become synonymous with the upper Bourgeoisie and cannot be interchanged with the medieval patriciate in ...