Historically,women have had a tough time getting rich.

历史上，女性在致富道路上历尽艰难。

2 Everything from male primogeniture rules to laws preventing women from holding property have limited the number of female tycoons through the ages.The few that did amass large fortunes typically inherited them from men in their family.“Women with huge personal wealth are a modern phenomenon,”says Walter Scheidel,a professor of ancient history at Stanford University.

2 几个世纪以来，无论是长子继承制还是女子不得享有财产的法律都限制了女性富豪的数量。仅有的几个也不过是典型的继承者，她们积累的大量财富是从家族中男性成员那里继承而来。斯坦福大学古代历史专业教授沃尔特·沙伊德尔指出：“女性拥有大量个人财富是现代才有的现象。”

3 Which is why,when we compiled a ranking of the 10 richest people in history last year,the list featured only men.That ranking was challenging in its own way—comparing the wealth of individuals across different eras and geographies in an apples-to-apples way isn't easy—so we borrowed a technique developed by the historians and economists at MeasuringWorth,which compares an individual's wealth to total global economic output at the time,but in addition,we've chosen to focus on only those women who went beyond just inheritance and took an active business or political role in managing their fortunes,even if they originally acquired them from fathers or you won't find women like Walmart widow Christy Walton and heiress Alice Walton,who have never had a hand in the day-to-day operations of the company.

3 这也是为什么去年我们整理“史上十大富豪”排名榜单时发现入榜的竟全是男性。这份榜单在整理时充满挑战——以两两相较的方式对不同时代、不同地域的个人财富量进行比较并非易事，因此我们借用了一项由世界货币价值研究网的历史学家和经济学家共同研发的测量技术。这种技术将个人财富量与当时全球经济产出总量进行对比。于此之外，我们决定只注重那些除遗产继承之外还在财富管理上积极经营或掌握实权的女性富豪们，即便她们最初的财产是从父亲或者丈夫手中继承而来。所以，在这份榜单中你不会看到沃尔玛继承人的遗孀克里斯蒂·沃尔顿及创始人长女爱丽丝·沃尔顿，因为她们从未插手公司的日常运营。

4 You also won't see wealthy royals like English monarchs Victoria and Elizabeth I on the list,or Egyptian queen each controlled power and money aplenty,none held a sufficient share of the world's riches to make the ,in modern times,billionaire business tycoons like Oprah Winfrey1美国著名脱口秀女主持人。and Theranos2血液检测公司。founder Elizabeth Holmes—with fortunes of $3 billion and $4.5 billion,respectively—aren't flush enough relative to global GDP to be included.

4 在这份榜单上你也不会看到诸如英国女王维多利亚和伊丽莎白一世，或者埃及王后纳芙蒂蒂这样富有的王室成员。尽管她们每个人都拥有无上权力和无尽财富，但其财富却不足以让她们在世界总财富中占据一席之地。同样，榜单中也不会出现像奥普拉·温弗瑞以及Theranos 创始人伊丽莎白·霍姆斯这样的现代亿万商业巨贾，尽管她们分别拥有30 亿美元和45 亿美元的财产，但相较于全球生产总值，她们算不上特别有钱。

5 To compile our list,we consulted nearly 30 historians and researched dozens of likely follows is a meticulous—if debatable—ranking of the wealthiest women in history.

5 为了编写榜单，我们咨询了近30 位历史学家并对数十位可能入榜者进行了调研。尽管仍可能存在争议，但下面呈现的是我们精心整理出来的“史上十大最富有女性”排名。

Wu

1.武则天

Lived:624—705 AD

Nation:China

Peak Wealth/Global GDP:22.7%

You don't become the richest woman of all time without a little Chinese empress rose to power as the concubine of two Tang Dynasty emperors,who were father and son.When the son,Emperor Gaozong,gained power,Wu was ruthless in eliminating rivals for his reportedly killed her own week-old daughter and pinned the crime on one of Gaozong's main consorts,Empress Wang,who was imprisoned and Gaozong died,Wu forced her own sons to abdicate and was named court administrator,a position equivalent to tactics paid off for China's economy: Under her 15-year reign,the empire expanded its domain far into central Asia,making it one of the largest in the world at the wealth flourished thanks to the trade of tea and silk with western nations along the Silk Road—with more than 300 million units of currency ultimately produced during the Tang Dynasty.

文章来源：《财富生活》 网址: http://www.cfshzz.cn/qikandaodu/2021/0426/1518.html