The longer she reigns, the less wealthy Queen Elizabeth II looks

San Francisco

QUEEN Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in British history on Wednesday, and while her country might have lost influence in the world, she has ruled over an unprecedented period of wealth creation.

Besides the unwinding of an empire and the economic booms and busts, her time as head of state has been marked by the rise of the super-rich. The emergence of billionaire financiers, entrepreneurs and oil-rich sheikhs has left the woman who inherited one of the richest thrones in the world in 1952 a relative pauper a little over six decades later, albeit one with palaces, stables and an expensive stamp collection.

The 89-year-old's estimated personal fortune, largely inherited from her family, is about US$425 million, according to an analysis by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's a mere 3 per cent of the wealth of the richest Briton, Gerald Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster. Europe's riches…