The wealthiest man who ever lived was Jacob Fugger, the Renaissance banker who revolutionized the art of making money and established the radical idea of pursuing wealth for its own sake. In The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger, Greg Steinmetz chronicles Fugger’s entrepreneurial and negotiating skills, as well as the nerve that made him wealthy. In an era when kings had unlimited power, Fugger had the nerve to stare down heads of state and ask them to pay back their loans—with interest.