Chapter 101: Chapter 101 Grosvenor's Invitation
To Barron's surprise, he received an invitation from the Duke of Westminster, whom he had met once.
Barron had met the Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, the sixth Duke of Westminster, at the last London Real Estate Agents' Guild meeting he attended with Viscount Bute.
From this we can see that the Duke of Westminster's family is much "younger" than the Duke of Devonshire's family.
As mentioned before, the ranking of non-royal ducal families in England is generally based on the time of their ennobling. The first ranked family is the Duke of Norfolk - Barron had met their eldest son, the future Duke of Norfolk - Henry Howard, at a costume party last time. Their family is the earliest existing non-royal noble family to be ennobled as a duke. In 1483, John Howard, the ancestor of the Howard family, was ennobled as the first Duke of Norfolk and Sirbery by Richard III.
The Duke of Westminster family ranks second from the bottom in this ranking. They were only granted the title of Duke in 1874, nearly four hundred years later than the Norfolk family.
However, what the Westminster family is most famous for is their wealth - they are the richest family among the British aristocracy. In a list in April this year, the Duke of Westminster became the richest person in Britain with assets of 4.7 billion pounds.
Almost all of their wealth comes from real estate - their main business is real estate.
The Westminster family also owns about a quarter of the land in London, which alone is worth a fortune, and they also own many properties in other parts of England and around the world.
The Grosvenor Company of the Westminster family is also the largest real estate company in the UK.
Although the Grosvenor family has only been a duke family for over a hundred years, they have a long history. They made their fortune in real estate in the 17th century.
The ancestor of the Grosvenor family, Baron Thomas Grosvenor, married a very wealthy wife, Mary, in 1677 and brought a large dowry, including 500 acres of land and an estate west of London and north of the Thames.
Except for Pimlico which was sold in the last century, the remaining 300 acres of this 500-acre land is a small part of the Grosvenor family's tens of billions of assets today - the two richest districts 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' son, Sir Richard Grosvenor, developed Grosvenor Square in the Mayfair area of his mother's dowry. This was the family's first development project and also rapidly expanded their family's wealth.
After tasting the sweetness of land development, the family bought various pieces of land in the UK and gradually became large landowners in the UK, and their wealth grew like a snowball.
As the Grosvenor family grew in power, they attracted the attention of the most powerful woman in Britain.
In 1874, Queen Victoria granted the title of Duke of Grosvenor to the then head of the family, Hugh Grosvenor.
It is worth mentioning that the eldest son of the sixth Duke of Westminster whom Barron met is named Hugh Grosvenor, who is 11 years old this year and has the same name as the first Duke of Westminster.
"Welcome, Barron, my friend."
"Hello, Mr. Grosvenor."
Fortunately, the Duke of Westminster did not invite Barron to his Eaton Estate in Cheshire, which covers an area of 4,400 hectares.
If you don't know what this means, well, the area of the Macao Special Administrative Region is 3,290 hectares, which is larger than the entire Macau.
By the way, the area of the Forbidden City is about 72 hectares, and Eaton Manor is equivalent to about 61 Forbidden City areas.
At this time, the Duke of Westminster in front of Barron once complained:
"The roof area of Eaton 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 served to the table. The dining room can accommodate 100 people for dinner, but 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 also has the identity of a soldier.
He has served in the British Army for quite 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 guild gathering. I praised you at that time. Do you remember?"
"Of course, Mr. Grosvenor, I'm honored."
Hearing Barron's words, the Duke of Westminster smiled:
"But now it seems that I was a little conservative. You are indeed the most outstanding one among the younger generation."
When they met, the other party did not hesitate to praise him. Instead of feeling proud, Barron became a little cautious, not knowing what the other party was going to do.
"In fact, I understand your situation very well. Grosvenor is doing well now, but when I took over, I encountered a similar situation as yours..."
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 company's management in the late 1960s, the company was paying a large amount of inheritance tax left over from the 1950s and was in a poor financial situation and poorly managed.
"We had a bit of a problem, to put it mildly..."
The Duke of Westminster recalled that he inherited the estate on his 18th birthday, younger than Barron was at the time.
Under his leadership, Grosvenor survived the high inflation period in the 1970s and 1980s, which caused many property companies to go bankrupt.
The company also survived the difficulties caused by the adoption of leasehold laws - which allowed lessees to buy the title to the properties they rented, thus undermining the single ownership and self-contained management style of aristocratic landowners including the Grosvenor family.
Later, the Duke of Westminster also told Barron some of his experiences in real estate management:
he believed that part of the reason for his company's current stable development was that the company had diversified its business, with nearly half of its assets invested outside the UK and Ireland, and increasingly managing properties for third parties.
The company manages nearly twice the size of its own property assets.
He also values long-term success - having a longer-term vision than listed real estate companies and being willing to participate in long-term cooperation projects with local governments.
"I know many people have a tradition of keeping a low profile and other property developers take anonymity very seriously, but one of our biggest assets at Grosvenor is its brand. It represents 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 only in the market but also outside the market..."
The Duke of Westminster said so.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone