Who was the world's first billionaire? Hint- he studied accounting for just 10 weeks

ELON Musk became the world's first trillionaire after SpaceX's blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) boosted the value of his businesses and increased his net worth to $1.11 trillion, according to the Bloomberg rich list. While Musk is the richest person today, 10 decades ago, John D Rockefeller became the world's first billionaire in 1916.

Rockefeller, who was born in Richford, New York, in 1839, earned the billionaire title through the success of the Standard Oil Company. As per the Forbes report, his formal business training included a 10-week class in accounting.

He started his career as an assistant bookkeeper before launching a commodities trading business dealing in hay, grain, meat, and other goods in 1859.

However, as the boom in oil production in neighbouring Pennsylvania became more intense, Rockefeller began to see more chances in the oil refining sector than in drilling for oil itself. He ventured into the oil-refining business in 1863, but his success in that venture soon led him to create the Standard Oil Company in partnership with other men in 1870.

In no time at all, Rockefeller was growing fast and soon established himself with the largest oil refinery in Cleveland.

At the age of 25, Rockefeller became the wealthiest man of his time, reigning over a monopoly that refined as much as 90 per cent of America's oil.

The breakup that made him richer

In 1911, the US Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil had breached the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company to be broken up. The business was split into 34 separate companies, including the parent company and 33 subsidiaries.

The move was designed to reduce Standard Oil's dominance in the oil industry. However, it ended up increasing Rockefeller's wealth.

Although Rockefeller had stepped away from the company's day-to-day operations years earlier, he remained its largest shareholder. When Standard Oil was dismantled, he did not lose his stake. Instead, he received shares in each of the newly independent companies in proportion to his original ownership.

Investors soon began to believe that the separate companies were worth more individually than they had been as a single giant monopoly facing regulatory pressure.

A fortune that changed financial history

By 1916, a share in Standard Oil of New Jersey was trading at $567. According to calculations published by The New York Times, the combined value of shares in the companies created after the breakup had risen to $2,014, compared with the original share's par value of $100.

The sharp rise in share prices pushed the estimated value of Rockefeller's holdings above $1 billion. At the time, The New York Times reported that the stock market rally had effectively made Rockefeller the world's first billionaire.