World’s Richest Thief British Royal Family?
A few days ago, you must have heard the news of King Charles’s coronation. King Charles is 74 years old today. and he has become a king at this age. That is, he is the oldest monarch of Britain. But wait, why is there a monarch in Britain even today? Britain is a democracy, right? Now I have some questions. How does the British Crown earn money? Does it even have any powers? And what does the world have to do with this? How rich is the British Royal Family?
The World’s biggest Thieves
“LOOT” is a Hindi word. but you see it in the English dictionary. why? The thing is from 1773, when the British and Indians were talking over the whole world. Then, after winning a war, wealth used to be stolen from kings and villages. As a reward, every British officer was permitted to keep that wealth with him. But how can we call it theft? Looting was the right of the British. So instead of negative words like theft and plunder, they stole a Hindi word, “loot,”. which you get to see first in the book dictionary of the Hindustani language. Let’s find out a bit about this suit-boot-clad looting family. Let’s find out what their lifestyle is. will tell you an interesting fact. When King Charles got married to Lady Diana Spencer, he spent $110 million on his wedding. This is a fact from 1981. This is the most expensive wedding to date. Princess Diana’s wedding gown was studded with 10,000 pearls. whose total price was Rs. 95 lakh. not today’s price, but that of that time, 1981. Where does this much money come from? The Royal Family has three major sources of income. personal wealth, privy purse, and sovereign grant.
- Personal wealth means inheritance. just like your parents leave you some money, property, or jewelry. It happens in the royal family too. This is considered their personal wealth because it has no relationship with the Crown. It belongs to their family. The net worth of King Charles alone is $2.3 billion. The wealth of his wife, son, and siblings is not included in this. It’s just his money; where and how to invest this money are their personal matters, the details of which are not available in the public domain.
- The second source of income is the privy purse, or duchy. “Duchy” means a land or property that belongs to the royal family. The revenue from a duchy goes to a member of the royal family. The member to whom this money goes gets the title of duke of so and so. For example, before Queen Elizabeth died, she was called the Duchess of Lancaster. That is the money earned from Lancaster’s 45,000 acres of land and property. That is, the money earned from Lancaster’s 45,000 acres of land and property went directly to Queen Elizabeth. Now the duke of Lancaster has become the current king, King Charles. and his eldest son would be the duke of Cornwall. That is, they’ll get the money coming from the property of the duchy of Cornwall. The total value of this duchy is $1.2 billion.
- last source of income, the sovereign grant. Around 200 years ago, King George the Third spent all his money. He didn’t have liquidity left, but he had a lot of British land. So he made a deal with the British leaders. Said that you use this land and give us the taxes that are earned. These properties are called Crown Estates. These include many parks, tourist sites, golf clubs, and farms. and 15% of the revenue coming from these crown estates goes directly to the royal family. As soon as the position of the Crown started improving, a rule was made that the money that would come from the sovereign grant would have to be used for official duties.
But in today’s world, what are the royal duties of a king? Hosting international guests, traveling, being presentable, maintaining big palaces and castles, and paying salaries to the staff—all these things also come under the title of “official duty.” Basically, throwing a lot of parties and attending a lot of parties The total value of these Crown Estates is $20 billion. But a few years ago, like when Harry and Meghan announced that they were saying goodbye to the Royal family, they just said bye-bye to this third income source. They will continue to get the first two sources of income for their whole lives. Now they have the option to start their own business. Now they can do profit-making business with his brand. The Crown’s third source of income is quite controversial. Today, taxpayers ask this question: why should the royal family’s maintenance burden fall on them? For example, in 1992, Windsor Castle caught fire, and these poor people didn’t have fire insurance. Rs. 360 crore was spent to restore this castle, which was paid for by the taxpayers. As per Forbes, by adding all these things, the British family’s net worth is 28 billion USD.
Why the Royal family?
In earlier times, the crown used to have actual powers. The crown used to play an actual role in deciding how a country should be run and what its policies should be a country should be run and what its policies should be. Today, the UK has become a parliamentary democracy. and the monarchy has become a ceremonial post. But still, this post has an important place in British culture. Their currency has a photo of the current queen or king. Their national anthem also changes depending on who is currently the king or queen. When Prince Harry and Megan got married, the expenditure was around $43 million, but the UK capitalized heavily on this wedding. $50 million worth of merchandise was sold, and in 2018, due to increased tourism, the UK benefited by $1 billion. Today, the royal family is a brand, a brand where none of its members is allowed to do any job. Instead, the responsibility of maintaining that brand is borne by the entire country. The interesting thing is that not just one country but many other countries also carry it. When you go to King Charles’s page on Wikipedia, you will find an interesting detail under his title. that is, the king of the United Kingdom and other commonwealth realms. What are commonwealth realms?
Commonwealth realm means a country that is not a part of the UK but still considers King Charles as its king. along with some smaller countries like New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, are also included. There was a time when it was said that “the sun never sets on the British Empire”. This is a part of that bygone era. Just as the president of India is the head of state of India, similarly, the head of state of Australia is the monarch. means king and queen. But again, this is a ceremonial post. All the power of governance rests with the elected government.
The Real Source of Money
If you look at the economic history of the UK, this graph comes to the fore. Where the UK’s economy started growing swiftly in 1800, what did the UK really do at this time? The answer is obvious: they colonized other countries. Some people argue that the British looted a lot from India, but at least they gave us an efficient railway system. If you also think like this, then let us tell you that the British did not build these railways with their own money. Instead, they took our own money, bought steel from a British company with it, made our people work like slaves, and built the railway tracks. Later, they also took tax from us for this rail, and during the Second World War, when they needed steel, they conveniently, without asking anyone, uprooted the already-made tracks, melted them, and sold them as well.
Queen Elizabeth would have worn this crown at most five times during her 70-year reign, as the 400 jewels embedded in it were stolen from India, Pakistan, and Africa. The Great Star of Africa is a 530-carat diamond whose value is $400 million. the Rosetta Stone stolen from Egypt, the Elgin Marbles from Greece, and of course, our Kohinoor Diamond. The British have all these stolen things. She herself used to say that this crown was very heavy and impossible to wear. Perhaps the burden of theft is heavy even for the best thieves in the world. In the Tower of London, Indians have to buy a ticket to go and see the Kohinoor. The British went away, but they did not forget the meaning of the word “loot” to date.
Let me tell you an interesting story. When the British in 1919 were firing bullets on our innocent people in Jallianwala Bagh, their per capita income then was the second highest in the world. On the man’s return to Britain, people donated 26,000 sterling pounds as a gift. That’s more than $1 million of today’s money. At the same time, only Rs 500 were announced for the families of the victims.