money power and influence aren't exactly very easy to come by believe me it takes time effort and a healthy amount of under the table dealings to achieve these things or if you're lucky enough you'll be born into a family that already has over the centuries these particular families have managed to accumulate insane amounts of money power and influence subsequently using it to place themselves in very convenient and important parts of society these families are so powerful they've basically won the economic game and done a tiny bit of shaping society to their whims these are some of the most powerful families in the world rothschild family if you know anything about conspiracy theories then you've certainly heard about the rothschilds from the wildest to the most plausible one way or the other the rothschilds had something to do with it i mean if the first page of google is to be believed the rothschilds have done everything from controlling every central bank in the world to even controlling the weather with an insane combined net worth of 400 billion dollars who are the rothschilds really alien emissaries are just some incredibly rich people well what they are is an international banking and finance dynasty of german descent they rose to international prominence in the early 18th century and subsequently established operations all across europe they were even elevated to nobility by the austrian government so yes they are just incredibly wealthy but you probably guessed that the rothschild's historical rise to power started with meyer rothschild whose keen talent for finance eventually led him to become a prominent member of the global banking industry and installed his five sons in the financial capitals of europe they successfully adapted to the industrial revolution during a rise in economic growth throughout europe landing themselves an oligopolistic position in the world trade of oil and metals the rothschilds were so powerful they could loan money to entire countries their clientele wasn't your everyday wealthy lord no they were out there loaning billions to entire governments in 1825 they supplied enough coin to the bank of england to avert a market liquidity crisis they granted loans to france after its defeat by prussia and they granted a four million pound loan to the british government after just being asked a few hours prior they were simply put just rolling in that money these days the family has taken a more low-key approach to being a financial superpower while spending their wealth by donating vast quantities of art to charity and generally avoiding conspicuous displays of wealth especially after their surrealist party back in the 70s that'll haunt my dreams forever the rothschild family are without a doubt extremely powerful influential and cloaked in mystery hence all the conspiracy theories but whether or not they're responsible for the assassination of jfk or are fighting against climate change is for the conspiracy theorists to decide the windsor family quite possibly one of the most popular and most influential groups of royals in the entire world with family branches that have stretched all across europe an influence that quite literally stretches the entire globe if that doesn't make you want to find your own windsor heir to marry wait till you find out just how wealthy the latest generation of british royalty is prince william and kate middleton's three kids george charlotte and louis aren't just living a life of unparalleled luxury they're making bank too prince george is already worth 2. 8 billion dollars and his sister charlotte is worth 4. 3 billion dollars they're already making 10 digits and neither of them is 10.
simply mind-blowing the windsors aren't just sitting at the top of a country with a gdp of 2. 7 trillion dollars their influence spreads far beyond scotland northern ireland wales and england reaching every continent on earth yes including antarctica some of these countries include the south pacific island of tana where the duke of edinburgh was considered a literal god and canada where the portrait of queen elizabeth is featured on their 20 bill that might sound a little strange to you but did you know queen elizabeth technically owns one-sixth of the earth's land of course she's gonna show up on a few bills the queen is technically the largest landlord in the entire world owning more than 6 billion acres of land and is technically the head of state of 16 countries these countries are part of what's known as the commonwealth realm and are some of the wealthiest places in the world like australia new zealand and canada which would technically make the windsor family worth an estimated 25 trillion dollars now that is a lot of power the windsors might be running a constitutional monarchy these days but that doesn't diminish just how influential they are i mean people have actual tattoos of the royal family on them i'm talking about permanent drawings of queen elizabeth on their bodies you can only wish you were that popular and what's popularity if you can't back it up with ridiculous amounts of wealth the windsors sure can they own several castles mansions and estates all of which are incredibly expensive and they didn't even need to buy most of them there's also the royal collection an art collection owned by the british royal family which is one of the largest art collections in the world with over seven thousand paintings forty thousand watercolors and drawings and about one hundred fifty thousand old master prints they've got historical photographs tapestries and the crown jewels worth four billion dollars pretty much everything you could consider art can be found in this collection some of the windsor's luxurious royal holdings include kensington palace which has an estimated worth of 630 million dollars and buckingham palace which is worth 4. 9 billion dollars one of the most expensive and popular buildings in the world and they just casually live in it coke family what do you get when you mix oil money time and a healthy bit of generational wealth well you get the coke family a dynasty of oil billionaires that have shaped both the economic and political landscape of the united states with a current net worth of 100 billion dollars the koch family started their rise to power with a company that had a mouthful for a name it was originally called the wood river oil and refining company until it was thankfully renamed to koch industries in honor of fred koch one of its earliest members it was run by his two sons david and charles coke affectionately referred to as the koch brothers after which millions upon millions of coca-cola jokes were made that is until david passed away in 2018 at the age of 79.
now to give you an idea of why the koch family is on this list please note coke industries is currently the second largest privately owned company in the united states and currently the sixth largest in the entire world raking in a yearly revenue of 115 billion dollars oh but coke industries isn't just rich it's prolific as well they've acquired so many companies and have so many subsidiaries they effectively do everything now and i'm not even exaggerating these acquisitions were incredibly smart as well some of them include the 22. 5 billion dollar purchase of georgia pacific one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of paper they provide a wide variety of household products under popular names like brawny angelsoft and vanity fair they also spent 7. 5 billion dollars to purchase molex an electronic components manufacturer and they work with the national guard of the united states as well that's paper electricity and protection whatever kind of apocalypse is coming the koch family is ready not only are they wealthy they also invest a non-significant amount of their wealth into making sure the political landscape of the country is exactly the way they want it it turns out you don't have to be royalty or hold any political office for that matter to get a few politicians to speak your language if there's one thing the koch family is really passionate about though it's real estate they purchased a multi-billion dollar 63-story 4 000 unit hotel and casino on the las vegas strip and that was just the start they plan to buy more hotels and hospitality assets at this point they're just trying to fill a bingo card of industries they can take over i think the walton family here's a family so powerful they have an insane net worth of 169.
7 billion dollars and own a corporation so massive it has a net worth larger than some country's gdp yet nobody really talks about them you know what a walmart is i know what a walmart is we've all seen the memes but did you know that there are approximately 10 walmart stores in 24 countries worldwide which employ about 2. 2 million people well i certainly didn't walmart was founded by sam walton in 1962. over the years it eventually grew into the world's largest company by revenue earning over 540 billion dollars consequently turning the waltons into the richest family in the united states let me tell you walmart is so powerful its very existence in a community is enough to destroy whatever competition stands in its way if a walmart opens up in a small town about half its retail trade will be gone in a few years fell to the feet of this retail giant naturally walmart's customer size is frankly ridiculous thanks to its low prices and wide range of products it appeals to virtually everybody and serves approximately 220 million customers every week the waltons have had more than one successful venture though you don't get over a hundred billion dollars by being a one-trick pony after all one of these ventures was known as sam's club a chain of warehouse clubs that sold groceries and general merchandise it operated 600 warehouses and raked in profits up to 57 billion dollars even their charitable foundations are a hint the walton family foundation has managed to take on environmental issues and education spending one billion dollars on the latter the waltons have used their vast wealth to dabble in a bit of politics as well the political leanings of the waltons aren't exactly one note though different heirs to the walmart throne have paid large sums of money to different sides of the political aisle trying their darndest to influence policies like a really boring season of the west wing morgan family this family's rise to international prominence started in the late 19th century with perhaps the most famous morgan of them all john pierpont morgan that guy and all the documentaries about early industrializing america born to be a banker j.
p morgan would follow in his father's footsteps and get embroiled in the financial sector becoming one of the most famous bankers in the world eventually immortalized by one of the most powerful financial institutions in the united states jp morgan and company jp morgan didn't build the first billion dollar company by banking alone though in the late 1890s he turned his attention to the steel industry he developed an alliance with the president of carnegie steel and purchased the company for 480 million dollars an amount which at the time was more than the u. s federal government's entire budget you gotta spend money to make money and boy did he make money in 1901 jp morgan merged his steel companies and established u. s steel a company worth 1.
4 billion dollars placing him not only at the top of the banking industry but the railroad industry as well he also controlled 60 of the steel industry too for good measure not to mention the fact that he sat at the board of directors for 48 different companies this obviously granted the morgan family immense political and economic sway around the world jp morgan was part of several illustrious social clubs where he would meet and rub shoulders with some of the most powerful men in society he even founded his own club and called it the metropolitan club which had powerful members in it including the likes of fellow billionaire cornelius vanderbilt morgan managed to achieve such wealth and influence by being an incredibly savvy and honest businessman and just kidding he was the very definition of cutthroat he bullied out-competed or straight-up bought out any competitors after jp morgan's death in 1913 he left behind what would eventually become the largest bank in the united states with assets worth 3.