50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 824 The Wealthy Windsor Royal Family

It was precisely because of Diana's restrained behavior that Sun Zhiwei felt very uneasy. It was already the last day, and this lady had only bought a few small items. It was obvious that she was after something big.

The two auctions on the third day featured half of the most exquisite treasures from this "Golden Treasure Trove" collection, including ten items worth over 100 million.

Today, if this old lady were to make a single move, it would be enough to cause Sun Zhiwei to lose millions of dollars.

If she targets those ten top-tier treasures worth over 100 million, Sun Zhiwei will suffer heavy losses; isn't this clearly an attempt to rip him off?

Although she felt that this Ms. Diana, as the former Queen's representative, would not do anything too shameless, nothing is absolute.

Both the former Queen and the former Queen are quite old; they are past the age where they need to care about their reputation. What they want most is to leave enough wealth for their descendants.

He had heard some rumors in his previous life that although the Windsor dynasty had been growing in terms of business operations over the years, the number of the Queen's descendants was also increasing.

With more and more people sharing the money, the royal family's extravagant lifestyle has not diminished at all. If this continues, the Windsor royal family may not be able to continue living like this.

After all, much wealth cannot be converted into cash income, such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. The Queen can't very well sell the palaces for money.

Furthermore, many of the royal family's gold, silver, jewels, antiques, and paintings are famous heirlooms, renowned for their prestige. They represent the face of the royal family and cannot be sold.

Just like the Queen's crown and scepter, those two items alone are worth billions of dollars. Of course, they are just decorations that can only be viewed and not sold.

On many occasions, the royal family even puts these treasures on public display in the Tower of London's Treasury for a fee, in order to generate a small profit.

This is practically the only way to monetize those treasures that can only be used as decorations.

Moreover, the royal family has a lot of income and a lot of expenses.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be over 100 members of the royal family still receiving salaries from government departments, including the Queen.

In fact, the British royal family is very wealthy.

In 1989, the Sunday Times Rich List was published for the first time, and the Queen topped the list, becoming the richest person in Britain with a total fortune of £52 billion.

This is just the part the Queen has revealed. As the British royal family that has ruled the country for over a thousand years, their foundation is beyond everyone's imagination.

In 2017, Forbes magazine estimated the total wealth of the British royal family to be $880 billion.

Where did this wealth come from? In fact, most of it was inherited, because the royal family inherited huge fortunes from generation to generation, but was exempt from inheritance tax.

Because these inheritances are not subject to inheritance tax, wealth can accumulate with each generation.

One person who must be mentioned here is George III, an inconspicuous king in British history.

During the reign of George III, Britain had already begun the Industrial Revolution. The usually taciturn George III suddenly realized that while Britain was becoming prosperous, the monarchy was gradually weakening.

Having seen the future clearly, George III decided to give up and stop trying, since he had no ability anyway.

He considered himself not a capable person, but he could still be considered a ruler who could maintain the status quo. However, he could not guarantee that the future royal descendants would not be spendthrifts.

Once a spendthrift king emerges, the wealth accumulated over generations will quickly be squandered. Europe has had more than one such spendthrift king in its history.

With the future of the royal family in mind, George III, after much deliberation, discussed with the British government the possibility of entrusting the royal family's businesses to the government for management. He reasoned that with so many talented people in the government, they could certainly manage it well, and the government would only need to distribute a portion of the profits to the royal family each year.

The British government at the time wasn't stupid either; the royal family's wealth was like a goose that lays golden eggs, so they readily agreed.

Since then, Britain has established a department called the "Royal Estates," whose main function is to manage the vast assets of the royal family.

Later, this department did indeed earn a lot of money every year, and then they would distribute it to members of the royal family according to a certain percentage.

What is this percentage? It had already reached 25% when the old queen was in power.

Don't think that this percentage is very high. The royal family's businesses are so large that with such a large base, the money they receive will naturally be more.

From 2021 to 2022, the British government distributed more than £8000 million annually to the Royal Family through the Royal Estates department.

But even with such a huge income, it was not enough to keep up with the ever-increasing expenses of the royal family. The royal family started to go into debt while the Queen was still on the throne.

He recalled that the Queen had asked the government for a pay rise in 2010 in order to cover the royal family’s £600 million budget deficit.

In short, the royal family's spending is a bottomless pit, and they will not hesitate to seize any opportunity to increase the royal family's wealth.

This time, Sun Zhiwei realized that the British royal family was trying to take advantage of him at this auction.

Others may not be able to find out who owns "The Golden Treasure," but if the royal family wants to find out, it's just a matter of making a phone call.

Neither Christie’s CEO Fenrir Mitchell nor Christie’s chairman John Carlson could possibly hide James’s (Sun Zhiwei’s) identity from the royal family.

Once you have the name, it's easy to search for information. Although MI6 is not under the control of the royal family, it's still easy for the royal family to access a person's information. They'll definitely find the right person every time.

James's identity has always been public, and Sun Zhiwei has not made any effort to keep it a secret.

Therefore, in the eyes of the royal family, James Roberts, the owner of this "Golden Treasure," is just a nouveau riche from America.

It's only because he was lucky enough to acquire this enormous wealth that it's perfectly justified for him to take some things from him to subsidize the royal family.

After all, India had been British territory for the past few centuries, and naturally, a portion of the treasures unearthed from India should belong to the British royal family.

This robber's logic is not without merit in the eyes of the British royal family; they have believed it in the past, present, and future.

They didn't ask for it directly, but instead bought it at a low price through an auction, probably because they were still concerned about saving face.

After realizing Ms. Diana's true purpose for coming, Sun Zhiwei no longer held back.

On the morning of the third day, just as the auction began, Sun Zhiwei made a dirty move against the old woman who had arrived on time.

He didn't do anything big; he just drew 200C of blood plasma from the old woman, half a bag of blood.

In less than three minutes, Diana began to turn pale, felt dizzy, and even lost her balance.

(End of this chapter)