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In Asia, Emperor Wu Ti (145-87 BC), who claimed the “Mandate of Heaven” for himself, was the biggest and most spectacular hustler among his contemporary sovereigns. He was also an immodest monopolist who looked down on his advisers and ministers among whom a grand historian to the Court was even castrated. His crime ? He dared put in a word in favour of a disgraced Generag. Wu Ti declared that his divine right allowed him to squeeze his sixty million subjects and make them pay maximum taxes which would then be diverted to his coffers to improve his lands.

Land, Wu Ti said was the ultimate possession and the borders of this vast wealth must be guarded fiercely against the Huns gathering there like locusts. He was livid that those uncouth migrants, the Huns demanded tributes in gold and silk in exchange for not invading his China.

The Huns’ greed for collecting riches was on par with Wu Ti’s. British historian Edward Gibbon says like all nomadic bands of hustlers, the Huns were totally irreligious and averse to the moral ambiguities of settled human lives. They were led by powerful dictatorial leaders like Attila who lusted after not land but “fire-bright gold’ from the land-rich settlers. For gold and gems and silks the Huns would massacre, snatch and loot what they could from rich settlements.

Like the trillionaire corporate of today, the dictator led a life marked by a strange distancing from his courtiers. Byzantine ambassadors to the camp of Attila the Hun noticed the opulence that surrounded Attila’s tent. But he ate off simple bowls while his courtiers wore extravagant silks, and drank from golden goblets studded with gems stones. Money, more money that was his hunger for.

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