Loaded

IT WAS politics, not prurience, that inspired the publication of the modern world's first “rich list”, in 1892. American protesters against protectionism argued that tariffs on many imported goods had turned some 31,000 businessmen into millionaires. To refute this claim, the publisher of the New York Tribune, a fervent supporter of tariffs, drew up what he reckoned was a complete list of all the millionaires in America. It ran to a mere 4,047, of whom only 1,125 had become rich in industries protected by tariffs.