Why do the princes of England and other kingdoms have so much money?

Question

Where does the money come from? Do the people of their nations just pore in their taxes so they take expensive vacations and buy expensive clothing? For instance, the sultan of Brunei has a fortune of $20 billion (according to VH1, which brags about others and not themselves). Brunei's neighboring countries are mostly third world countries, yet his children have an enormous palace with a private jet per person. What justification is their for this imbalance of economic power?

Answer 1

Monies accumulated over centuries, as a Monarchy continues. Plus, as far as the British Monarchy is concerned, leading members of the Royal Family receive an annual "purse" from the good ole British Taxpayer. Argument these days for the continuation of the Monarchy at all is that they bring in a lot of Tourist Dollars and therefore are, in a sense, "working for the people" by just being on display and being themselves.
I think a growing number of people, there, however, are becoming disenchanted with the whole stupid, outdated, fishbowl soap opera. I can't really blame Charlie. I think he's a pretty sorry apology for a human being, but unfortunately that is the way the poor guy was conditioned and indoctrinated from the moment he was born. He doesn't know how to be any other way, and if he were not technically first in line to the throne, and have access to all the money required to meet his daily needs and keep him in the pampered luxury he has been accustomed to f rom birth, I doubt if he could make a living for himself flipping hamburgers in a fast food joint.

My bet is that upon the death of the present Queen, the whole Monarchy thing will fold like a lawn chair. But don't expect it to be any time soon. She has pretty longlife genes, and if she hangs on for as long as her own momma, she's likely to be sitting on that throne for another 20 years. The only other possibility would be if Prince William marries a woman the Queen approves of, she may well abdicate to allow a young, attractive "people magnet" couple to take over the job as King and Queen of Britain, while she slides gracefully into the background as "Queen Mother". The Royal Soap Opera may that way go on for a while longer , but I'll bet a dollar to a mountain of doughnuts the children of William and whoever he marries will not want the job of Monarch and that will be the end of it. Meanwhile, the British Taxpayer will continue to have some of his hardsweated income tax syphoned off to pay for the continued British Royal Soap Opera in all of its not so shining glory.

Answer 2

In England, the monarchy has private wealth from personal holdings. Real estates, stocks, etc. But they lose money too. Their investments can go bad like anyone's. Wealth goes up and down...it doesn't just constantly grow, because investments are more complicated than that.
And if you are spending money....forget it. It goes like it does for anyone.
It is unfortunate that there are countries in the world where a few people are stupidly wealthy and everyone else is dirt poor. Even in Muslim countries, where the people are commanded by their faith to be charitable and give to the poor, there seem to be a lot of economic imbalances.

Answer 3

Depends... was back when they owned everything - (and may still own stuff) anyway in modern times some royalty still has national control. The British Royalty for the most part only get a annual salary - after all britain is a debtor country - if they were accountable for the countries financial state they would be heavily in debt.... this happened in england shortly after the creation of the bank of england. Rotheschilde and other bankers bankrolled wars and such... a lot of noble of the renaissance went in debt to money lenders and eventually became landless.

Traditionally nobility garners their wealth from the land they administer... of course this expanded to trade and establishing charters such as voyages to the new world. Stakes in companies such as the dutch east indies company etc.. could also bring profits.

IN modern times the queen for instance has much of her cash from investments but she isn't the richest royal. The Dutch Queen for instance has huge amounts of resources because of her stake in the dutch oil company - dutch shell.

different royalty have different sources of assets.

We all share everything though it is just who is administering what and who supports who to use what.

real monarchial royalty is about divine right, or at first being chosen by the people to lead. Theres more to it though.

but the reason why peers tend to have money at default is that they have trusts established for them that pass on wealth to them. They also may have stipends and pensions - and guarantied employment - or much easier employment. Also villas and manors tend to be self sustaining - so they may be able to live for free - a few centuries of that allows you to accumulate wealth - as anything you sell trade etc.. is extra. But not all royals are rich, most however have their states look after them at default so anything else is extra. (Don't forget they also go to some of the most prestigious schools in the country or world.... that allows them to make links with other well and intelligent individuals who are doers - they have identity and are in some cases raised from birth to live up to a standard - with many achieving that standard, success is largely assured - with able parents or gaurdians, some of the good instructors and 'strong social network capacities' - one of the biggest factors) supporters surround them. - and they have resources.

Investments in companies (stock) is I would say the major source of liquid capital.

In the old days marriage and joining of lands - and cheap successful wars (if there ever were any) and cheap labour - sometimes people payed them just to live.

most countries these days are ridiculously in debt.- so it's good that the royals arn't personally accountable to the finances...

Answer 4

There is no justification for that. Just recently the Queen started paying taxes on her money which largely comes from her family and taxes. Maybe others should consider doing the same.

Answer 5

They have wealth from private holdings along with being paid from the government. The monarchy has been tradition in England for centuries and seems to have worked. It's part of their history.

Answer 6

Closer to home, I wondered where the money for MTV's Sweet 16 show comes from. Does anyone really have that much disposable income? How did they get it?