Chapter 276 The Richest Man in Britain
In March, Forbes released the 2004 World's Richest List.
In this list, the top 1,000 richest people in the world are listed.
The world's richest man on this list is still Bill Gates, who ranks first on the list with a net worth of US$46.6 billion.
Following closely behind is stock god Warren Buffett, with a net worth of US$42.9 billion.
But in this list, the most eye-catching one is the Duke of Barron Cavendish from England.
Well, even though Barron has begun to hide his wealth in various ways, the assets he holds at this time are still rated at US$20 billion by Forbes.
This puts him tied for sixth place on the list with five members of the Wal-Mart family who hold the same shares, second only to Paul Allen, another shareholder of Microsoft.
In addition to being the only British person in the top ten of this list, the bigger factor that attracts attention is Barron's age - a super rich man who is only 24 years old.
You must know that even if the list is expanded to the top 100, most of the members on the list are over 50 years old.
Barron is the only one under thirty years old.
The person closest to Barron in age among the top 100 is the 37-year-old Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, ranked 26th on the list, who is also the new manager of Chelsea Club. Boss Abu.
Therefore, Barron still occupies the position of the richest man in the world under the age of 30. The rest of the top ten assets combined are not as high as his net worth. It can be said that he is the first in the world.
Coincidentally, in the 2004 British Rich List launched by The Sunday Times, Barron Cavendish became the new richest man in Britain with a net worth of 11 billion pounds, replacing The position of the Duke of Westminster last year.
What’s interesting is that the list of the richest people in the UK released this time also includes Abramovich. With a net worth of 10 billion pounds, he ranks second on the list of richest people in the UK.
In the original time and space, in this list, Abramovich became the richest man in England...
It can be regarded as the appearance of Barron, which saved a lot of face for Great Britain, otherwise a Russian would become the richest man in England. , I’m afraid the British people will have mixed feelings in their hearts.
However, over time, this seems to be acceptable. After all, after this, there were very few pure British people at the top of the British rich list. Indians and Russians took turns taking the throne. ...
"To our richest man..."
After clinking glasses with the Duke of Westminster, Barron smiled at him and said:
"Don't make fun of me, Mr. Grosvenor. You also know how much water there is in this list. Now my debt is much higher than their so-called net worth."
Regarding what Barron said, the Duke of Westminster just Smiling, he understood that even those rich lists had some water content, especially those whose companies were not listed companies, and could only make a general valuation. But when it comes to the young Duke in front of him, I'm afraid The numbers in the list will only be less, not more.
“I heard that the Bankers Association has extended an invitation to you?”
“Yes, I am considering whether to join.”
“Why not?”
Hearing Barron's answer, the Duke of Westminster couldn't help but be a little confused. It was obvious that joining the Bankers Association would be very beneficial to Barron, especially after he mastered Standard Chartered Bank. Although Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered Bank does not have much business in the UK, but what you need to know is that the entire City of London is, to a certain extent, controlled behind the scenes by the Bankers Association. Barron can also guess what the Duke of Westminster is thinking, but he really has no interest in colluding with those bankers, and he has too many names now, such as the House of Lords. As a member of Parliament - he can count on one hand the number of times he has attended meetings of the House of Lords this year.
Joining the Bankers Association does have some benefits. For example, in the previous life, the Bank of England manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the pound sterling return in 2012. The case involving repo interest rates involves heavyweight banks including Lloyds Bank, Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and others.
Libor, as one of the most important benchmark interest rates in the world, affects a large number of swaps and futures contracts, commodities, derivatives, personal consumption loans, home mortgages and other transactions. It is a trillion-dollar Calculation is the basis of the financial trading market and even affects the central bank's judgment on monetary and economic policies. It plays an important role in the global market.
So once the manipulation scandal was revealed, the financial market was shocked. When people discovered that such a mature and conventional pricing mechanism had been dominated by interests for a long period of time, full of black-box operations, fooled and manipulated The feeling instantly turned into collective anger.
This time the investigation was led by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Commission (CFTC), and involved regulators from three continents including the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union. It can be said to be massive. According to the investigation, starting in 2005, These manipulative behaviors are already occurring.
In the end, the participating banks were fined hundreds of millions of dollars, and as a result, a large number of senior executives resigned.
And their manipulation of Libor and Repo was done through the British Bankers Association, which designated these...
Since he knew that this matter would come out sooner or later, Barron was not too He is very interested in participating. After all, the Standard Chartered Bank he currently owns has its main businesses in emerging markets outside the UK.
Otherwise, even if he does not participate in the manipulation, those supervisory agencies will definitely investigate the banks he controls and cause trouble.
"Barron, I want to talk to you alone..."
The Prince of Wales took Barron to a room upstairs in the party hall. After the two parties sat down, his expression became slightly serious. :
“Does the matter about Kolo have something to do with you?”
Hearing the question from the Prince of Wales, Barron did not feel much fluctuation in his heart, nor did he himself. He just thinks that his existence in Koro can really be hidden from everyone.
His expression was relaxed and he said lightly:
"Your Highness, I am a businessman who is only interested in making money. And being able to get Colo out of France's control and move closer to us in England is in itself beneficial to Great Britain, isn't it?"
"Although it is That being said, the French are already dissatisfied with us. And it’s not only the French who are paying attention to Colo, but also the Americans..."
"Americans?"
Barron smiled and said:
"There's no oil in Kolo, so they won't be interested."
"No matter what, I hope you can act with caution and don't play with fire."
Although on the surface Barron casually agreed with the Prince of Wales's words, he still disagreed in his heart.
The Great Britain has declined after all. Where has the strength of the empire gone? Is such a small Kolo worthy of the crown prince’s mobilization of troops?
However, considering that starting from Margaret Thatcher, they almost overturned against Argentina, then the current performance seems reasonable.
So without the rise of a great power, how can there be any dignity for small people? Nowadays, the majestic empire on which the sun never sets has to follow the footsteps of the United States, making it inconvenient to act on its own.
(End of this chapter)