One person who has never shown much interest in corporate correctness is Her Majesty the Queen — but if you had been able to buy shares in 1952 in the royal ‘firm’ of which she has been executive chairman these past 63 and a half years, you would have made out like Warren Buffett. When she succeeded her father, the royal finances were not a matter for public discussion: the first estimate of her private wealth, at £60 million, did not appear in the press until 1969. More recently, a consultancy called Brand Finance came up with a figure of £44 billion as the value of the entire monarchical enterprise, made up of £18 billion of ‘tangible assets’ (a small portion of them privately owned, the rest attached to the job) and £26 billion of ‘intangibles’ representing ‘the value of the uplift to the economy attributable to the monarchy’.
Though any conventional company would have made her retire 20 years ago, there can be no doubt that the Queen has been a brilliant manager of her own brand (only Sir Richard Branson stands comparison) and a sharp-eyed steward of the royal asset portfolio.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in