In earlier times, in the nobles' manors, the master and servants lived in two areas, upstairs and downstairs respectively. The two areas were divided into the master's living area and the servant's living area, and the two areas were clearly separated.Generally speaking, kitchen servants are not allowed to appear in the living room without the master's call.
Family members often do not go to where servants live, as that would be considered extremely disrespectful.
If the master needed to summon the servants for something, he would ring the bell...
Just like watching many movies and TV shows about old aristocrats, you can often see that after the master gets up, he presses the alarm clock, and the servant's bell will ring, which represents the master's call.
Until now, many aristocratic families still retain this tradition.
The only slight difference is that in the old times, the transmission of those bells was carried out through mechanical structures; but in modern society, they have all become electric bells.
Through Ramos, Barron also roughly understood the slightly uneasy mood of the servants in his family, but he didn't care about it at the moment.
In fact, except for a few people like the butler Sean and the housekeeper Riley who have served the Cavendish family for two or three generations, most of the servants in the manor are simply employed.
At this time, Barron's idea was very simple. It might not be a bad idea to take advantage of the current situation and let some less determined servants leave.
Moreover, more than thirty servants were indeed too many...
"Master Barron, this is the list of assets we directly hold, most of which are not mortgaged..."
Butler Sean acted quickly. After Barron had breakfast in the morning, he had already handed him the inventory of assets he had compiled.
Barron took the catalog, looked through it, sighed, and said,
"It looks like the situation at home is indeed not good..."
Yes, including the assets of the manor and the funds needed for daily operations, most of them are handled through the family trust fund.
In this way, the assets directly held by the family at this time, apart from a small amount of cash, only include some jewelry and clothing which are not easy to sell.
Of course, after hundreds of years of accumulation, especially as the Devonshire family once had a "single aristocrat" who was obsessed with art, their collection can be said to be huge.
Just like the 11th Duke, the Rembrandt and Raphael paintings he sold to pay inheritance tax were only a small part of his family's collection. He still had many Rembrandt paintings and more than a dozen Raphael paintings - this also shows the heritage of the Devonshire family.
It seems that their family is facing bankruptcy, but the value of these artworks alone is enough to keep the family going!
But Baron also knows that it is very unwise to sell these artworks now, because the prices of these collections now are really much higher than in the future, which can be as much as ten or even dozens of times. He will not sell these collections unless he has no other choice.
But now, Barron needs to "save the family", or at least get it back to normal operation, which requires at least 35 million pounds of funds. It can be said that the ordinary jewelry and other items in the catalogue, even if they are all sold, will not exceed 500,000 pounds, which can be said to be a drop in the bucket.
Moreover, given the current situation, if they were to sell off the jewelry and other items, they probably wouldn't fetch a very good price. If word got out, it would make more people realize that the Cavendish family was now in the most dire situation.
But Barron's worries soon became less important, because when his personal servant Ramos brought today's newspaper with a serious face, Barron saw the report on it and frowned!
Because in many newspapers today, there were reports about the Duke of Devonshire's family!
Of course, because his father and elder brother died in a car accident, there were many reports about the Duke of Devonshire's family, one of the few remaining ducal families in England, during the funeral and in the period before.
But the difference is that today's reports are all focused on the economic situation of the Duke of Devonshire's family!
Almost all reports point out that the Duke of Devonshire's family invested a huge amount of money in the "London Star" fraud case that just broke out.
There were even newspapers revealing that many of the assets of their family trust fund had been mortgaged to banks. Once they were unable to repay the assets due to huge losses, most of the family assets would be forcibly recovered!
It can be said that these reports will probably make their family a hot topic in the near future, making their situation even more difficult.
Just as Barron was wondering why these reports suddenly appeared, his cell phone rang. It was Julia Moore, the manager of the family trust fund.
"Lord Barron, have you seen the report in the newspaper?"
"I just saw it, Ms. Moore."
"The situation is not good. This sudden report has a great impact on us."
Hearing Yulia's words, Barron frowned again:
"what's going on?"
"It was the bank. The bank that we took out the mortgage from contacted me and wanted to know if I had the ability to repay."
At this time, Barron glanced at the housekeepers Sean and Ramos in the room, lowered his voice and asked,
"This shouldn't be the case. When the loan was taken out, there was a fixed term, right? Why are they in such a hurry now?"
"That's why they just called to ask, but it has to be said that it is a way of exerting pressure."
"Do you have any information about the report? Why did such a report suddenly appear?"
Something is indeed amiss, because although the Duke of Devonshire's family has the highest title outside of the royal family, their family is actually quite low-key. Apart from the recent car accident, the last time this kind of thing was reported on a large scale was nearly half a century ago when his grandfather faced high inheritance taxes and almost couldn't inherit the family business.
But now after the funeral, their investment losses are suddenly reported on such a large scale, and there may be unknown reasons behind it.
"I have also asked someone to investigate. The news was first reported by a tabloid in London. They reported it yesterday and then attracted the attention of other newspapers, which is why today's reports appeared..."
"If you have time, could you come over today, Ms. Moore? I'd like to have a good talk with you about the family trust fund."
"Okay, Sir, I will visit you this afternoon. Also, you need to pay attention. It is very likely that many reporters will appear at the manor recently, and even go directly for interviews."
After hanging up the phone, Barron temporarily put the newspaper reports aside. Although these reports had an impact on him, he now had more priority matters to deal with.
In the final analysis, as long as the funding problem is solved, no matter what kind of conspiracy or tricks there are, force will eventually defeat tricks!
And after all, given the Devonshire family's financial resources, it is not at the end of its rope as described in the reports.
In his previous life, Barron worked in the financial industry for many years and had conducted in-depth research on overseas markets.
London, as one of the world's financial centers, is also a point that he can take advantage of at this time.
Yes, even if he was "reborn" and did not come to the Duke's family, he was confident that he could make a name for himself with the experience of his past life.
In fact, the family's real assets are far greater than the so-called "liabilities"!
It's just that the global economy has not yet begun to recover, so the selling price of many assets is far lower than the actual value.
Thinking of this, Barron's heart moved - could it be that someone is spying on the assets of the Cavendish family?