So excuse me if my question is not in perfect English, it’s not my main language.
So I’m watching The Big Short right now and people are talking about billions of dollars. And it got me thinking, was there ever a level of wealth in egyptian/roman/medieval/post renaisance times that matches the wealth that the ‘1%’ has now. Taking inflation and eveything in account.
So my questions are; Is there an event in history that completely changed global/continental economy,** And has there been a moment in time where the difference between the richest and the poorest was as big as it is now? Maybe in Roman times?
**: I know of the Dutch East Indian Trading Company that basically invented the stock market but to my knowledge has only boosted Dutch economy
I'm going to answer your second question:
And has there been a moment in time where the difference between the richest and the poorest was as big as it is now? Maybe in Roman times?
Yes, and a lot more recently than Roman times, global income inequality actually peaked in the 1970s and has been falling since.
What happened is that in the 19th century a bunch of countries in Western Europe and its English-speaking offshoots industrialised and transitioned to high income countries, while other countries mainly struggled to adapt - or were the victims of European imperialism.
On the plus side, life expectancies started to rise globally from the 1850s onwards, the world even saw life expectancies start to rise in Asia in the 1910s and Africa in the 1920s. This is a very good thing but did lead to an increase in the number of people living in poor countries and thus at the bottom of the global income distribution. [ETA: Oops: life expectancy link: https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy]
Post WWII, many countries won their independence, but colonialism was mainly destructive to capital, particularly social capital, and many ex-colonies struggled to build politically stable, and relatively uncorrupt governments. There also was quite an anti-market economy sentiment of the time after the Great Depression and countries' experiences with planning during WWII. Some countries even tried Communism.
But the economic take offs of the Asian Tigers not only reduced global income inequality directly but also showed what could be done (of course there's lively arguments still about the appropriate role of government), assisting policy makers elsewhere. And more wealthy people makes it easier for countries' economies to grow through trade.
I suggest following the links I've supplied to ourworldindata.org, there's a lot more material in there about the transition of incomes and of health around the world, though much of it breaches the 20 year rule.