Chapter 101 Grosvenor’s Invitation

To Barron's surprise, he received an invitation from the Duke of Westminster, who had met him once.

Barron had already met the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, the third Duke of Westminster at the last meeting he attended with Viscount Bute. Six generations.

It can be seen from here that the Duke of Westminster family is far "younger" than the Duke of Devonshire family.

As mentioned before, the ranking of the non-royal ducal families in England is generally based on the time of knighthood. The first-ranked Duke of Norfolk family - Barron saw their eldest son at a costume party last time. The future Duke of Norfolk - Henry Howard, his family is the earliest non-royal noble to be canonized as a duke. In 1483, John Howard, the ancestor of the Howard family, was named the first Duke and Lord of Norfolk by Richard III. Li Bo.

The Duke of Westminster family ranks second to last in this ranking. They were only awarded the title of Duke in 1874, nearly four hundred years later than the Norfolk family.

But the Westminster family is most famous for their wealth - they are the richest family among the British aristocracy. In a list in April this year, the Duke of Westminster was worth 4.7 billion. With sterling assets, he became the richest man in Britain.

Almost all of their wealth comes from real estate—their main business industry is real estate.

And the Westminster family also owns about a quarter of the land in London, which alone is worth a lot of money. It also owns many properties in other parts of the UK and around the world.

The Grosvenor Company of the Westminster family is also the largest real estate company in England.

Although the Grosvenor family has only become a ducal family for more than a hundred years, the Grosvenor family has a long history. They made their fortune from real estate in the 17th century.

The ancestor of the Grosvenor family, Baron Thomas Grosvenor, married a particularly wealthy wife, Mary, in 1677, bringing with him a large dowry, including 500 acres of land west of London and north of the Thames River. An estate.

Except for Pimlico, which was sold in the last century, the remaining 300 acres of these 500 acres are a small part of the Grosvenor family's tens of billions of assets today - the two richest boroughs in London, Mayfair and Belgravia (located on the south side of Hyde Park, known as the most expensive residential area in the world).

In 1710, Thomas's son Sir Richard Grosvenor developed Grosvenor Square in the Mayfair district where his mother's dowry was. This was the family's first development project and also rapidly expanded their family's wealth. .

After tasting the benefits of land development, the family purchased various lands in the UK and gradually became a large British landowner. Their wealth also snowballed.

As the Grosvenor family grew in power, they succeeded in attracting the attention of the most powerful woman in Britain.

In 1874, Queen Victoria granted the title of Duke to Hugh Grosvenor, then the head of the family.

It is worth mentioning that the eldest son of the sixth Duke of Westminster whom Barron met is called Hugh Grosvenor. He is 11 years old this year and is married to the first Duke of Westminster. Same name.

"Welcome, Barron, my friend."

"Hello, Mr Grosvenor."

The Duke of Westminster simply did not invite Barron to his Eton Manor in Cheshire, which covers an area of ​​4,400 hectares.

If you don’t know what this is, well, it’s roughly equivalent to a quarter of the area of ​​Yanjing City.

In addition, the area of ​​the Forbidden City is about 72 hectares, and Eton Manor is equivalent to about 61 Forbidden City.

At this time, the Duke of Westminster in front of Barron once complained like this:

"The roof area of ​​Eton Manor alone is several acres; the kitchen is three miles away from the dining room, and the food is always cold and hard when it is delivered to the table. The dining room can accommodate 100 people, and it is too spacious..."

The Duke of Westminster has a burly figure, and even in a suit, he has a military demeanor - in fact, in addition to being a duke and a real estate developer, he does have a military identity.

He served in the British Army for a long time and in May of this year he was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry.

"The last time we met was at a trade guild gathering. I praised you then, do you remember?"

"Of course, Mr Grosvenor, it would be my pleasure."

Hearing Barron's words, the Duke of Westminster smiled:

"But looking at it now, I was still a little conservative at the time. You are indeed the most outstanding performer among the younger generation."

During this meeting, the other party praised him generously. Instead of being proud, Barron became a little cautious, not knowing what the other party was going to do.

"Actually, I have a deep understanding of your situation. Now Grosvenor Company is still developing well, but when I took over, I also encountered a similar situation to you..."

After the other party's introduction, Barron learned that the Grosvenor family's business situation was not always so good.

When the Duke of Westminster became involved in the management of the company in the late 1960s, the company was paying a large inheritance tax from the 1950s, was in poor financial shape and was poorly managed.

"To put it mildly, we had a problem..."

The Duke of Westminster recalled that he inherited the inheritance on his 18th birthday, which was younger than Barron at this time.

Under his leadership, Grosvenor Company survived the high inflation period of the 1970s and 1980s, which brought down many property companies.

The company also weathered the difficulties caused by the introduction of leasehold laws, which allowed lessees to purchase ownership of the property they leased, thus undermining the single ownership and idiosyncratic management styles of aristocratic landowners, including the Grosvenor family.

Later, the Duke of Westminster also told Barron some of his experiences in real estate management:

He believes part of the reason for his company's current steady growth is that it has diversified its business, with nearly half of its assets invested outside the UK and Ireland, and increasingly managing properties for third parties.

The company's assets under management are nearly twice the size of its own property assets.

And he values ​​long-term success more - he has a longer-term vision than listed real estate companies and is willing to participate in long-term cooperation projects with local governments.

"I know many have a tradition of keeping a low profile and other property developers value anonymity, but one of our Grosvenor Companies' greatest assets is its brand. It stands for stability, honesty and excellence. They are very important ingredients and we take these qualities very seriously. I want to have a business that is respected, not just in the market but outside of it…”

So said the Duke of Westminster.