Green attributes his success not to cheap acquisitions but to a lifetime of plying the rag trade.

FORBES: Envy With Green

Their work included the BBC hit The Rag Trade, which also starred Varney.

BBC: On The Buses writer Ronnie Wolfe dies

In 1970, after some 25 years of growing success in the rag trade, he launched himself as Bill Blass Ltd.

ECONOMIST: Bill Blass

Or Paul Drayson, the head of England's Powderject Pharmaceuticals who dresses in the khaki and gray casual outfits that the men's rag trade has labeled nerdware.

FORBES: Making Money In Style

Only a few scraps of the rag trade remain, but in 1958, before the advent of credit cards, Burton's had the bright idea of store cards.

ECONOMIST: Leeds: Streets paved with brass | The

Many in the rag trade said it was an aberration.

ECONOMIST: British fashion

Yes, his story is one from the rag trade to the rich list but it is unconventional in that his fortune was made outside of the fast-growing emerging markets.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Goldman Sachs has a long history in lower Manhattan, from Marcus Goldman providing short-term financing to the nineteenth-century rag trade on the Lower East Side to signs carried around the present occupation of a park at Broadway and Cedar Street.

FORBES: Don't Blame Goldman Sachs For Hedging Its Bets And Staying In Business