She remained in Kenya alone when her father's fortune was lost and he left for Peru.
He was not a very good provider, and when his father's fortune was lost, forcing the family members to sell their house, it was Polly Cartland who led them into a home far less commodious than the one they had lost.
Rio Branco was born in Salvador, in what was then the Captaincy of Bahia, to a wealthy family, but most of the fortune was lost after his parents' deaths early in his childhood.
He continued to be treated favourably by the king, but was compelled to refuse the offer of a baronetcy because most of his fortune was lost due to his exile, and became marginalised from power as prosecution of the war took center stage.
"When stocks went from $100 to $1, massive fortunes were lost".
And the business is tied more than ever to Wall Street: after Lehman Brothers' collapse, demand plunged as fortunes were lost and ostentatious displays of wealth frowned upon.
Facebook's announcement this week that it would tweak its news feed felt all too familiar: Facebook makes changes, people howl, fortunes are lost, Facebook gets stronger.
Now, the economy is slowing, dot-coms are failing, venture capital has dried up, fortunes are lost, as is a goodly portion of retirement savings, and doubters are rising from the woodwork.
Each age, you might say, has its own version of tulip fever, when merchants in 17th-century Holland went mad bidding up the price of tulip bulbs and fortunes were lost overnight.
