In March, Forbes released the 2004 list of the world's richest people.
This list lists the top 1,000 richest people in the world.
The world's richest man on this list is still Bill Gates, who tops the list with a net worth of US$46.6 billion.
Following closely behind is the stock god Warren Buffett, with a net worth of $42.9 billion.
However, the most eye-catching person on this list is Duke Barron Cavendish from England.
Well, even though Barron has begun to conceal his wealth through various means, his assets at this time are still assessed by Forbes to be 20 billion US dollars.
That puts him in a tie for sixth place on the list with five other Walmart family members who hold the same stake, just behind another Microsoft shareholder, Paul Allen.
In addition to being the only British person in the top ten of this list, a more eye-catching factor is Barron's age - he is only 24 years old and a super-rich man.
You know, even if you expand the list to the top 100, most of the members on the list are over 50 years old.
Barron was the only one under the age of thirty.
The person closest to Barron in age among the top 100 on the list is 37-year-old Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, who is ranked 26th on the list. He is also the new owner of Chelsea Football Club.
Therefore, Barron still occupies the position of the world's richest man under the age of 30. The assets of the other top ten combined are not as high as his wealth. It can be said that he is the first by a huge margin.
Coincidentally, in the 2004 British Rich List released by the Sunday Times later, Barron Cavendish became the new richest man in Britain with a net worth of 11 billion pounds, replacing the Duke of Westminster last year.
Interestingly, Abramovich is also included in the British rich list released this time. With a net worth of 10 billion pounds, he ranks second on the British rich list.
In the original time and space, Abramovich became the richest man in Britain in this list...
It was the appearance of Barron that saved a lot of face for Britain. Otherwise, if a Russian became the richest man in Britain, the British people would probably feel mixed emotions.
However, in the long run, this seems to be acceptable. After all, after this, there are very few pure British people at the top of the British rich list. Indians and Russians take turns to be the boss...
"Cheers to our richest man..."
After clinking glasses with the Duke of Westminster, Barron smiled and said to him:
"Don't make fun of me, Mr. Grosvenor. You know how much water there is in this list. My current debt is much higher than the so-called net worth they say."
The Duke of Westminster just smiled at what Barron said. He understood that even those rich lists were inflated, especially for those wealthy people whose companies were not listed companies. They could only make a rough valuation. However, when it came to the young duke in front of him, the numbers in the list would probably be less, not more.
"I heard that the Bankers' Association has invited you?"
"Yes, I am considering joining."
"Why not?"
After hearing Barron's answer, the Duke of Westminster couldn't help feeling puzzled. It was obvious that joining the Bankers' Association would be very beneficial to Barron, especially after he took control of Standard Chartered Bank. Although Standard Chartered Bank did not have much business in the UK, it should be noted that the entire financial city of London was, to a certain extent, controlled by the Bankers' Association behind the scenes.
Barron could guess what the Duke of Westminster was thinking, but he really had no interest in colluding with those bankers, and he now had too many titles, such as his identity as a member of the House of Lords - the number of times he attended the House of Lords meetings in the past year could be counted on one hand.
Joining the bankers' association does have some benefits. For example, in the previous life, the case of the Bank of England manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the sterling repurchase (Repo) rate in 2012 involved heavyweight banks including Lloyds Bank, Barclays Bank, and Royal Bank of Scotland.
As one of the world's most important benchmark interest rates, Libor affects a large number of swap and futures contracts, commodities, derivatives, personal consumer loans, home mortgages and other transactions. It is the basis of a financial trading market with a scale of trillions of dollars, and even affects the central bank's judgment on monetary and economic policies. Its position in the global market is crucial.
Therefore, once the manipulation scandal broke out, the financial market was shocked. When people discovered that such a mature and conventional pricing mechanism had been influenced by interests for a considerable period of time and was full of shady operations, the feeling of being fooled and manipulated instantly turned into collective anger.
This time, the investigation is led by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and involves regulators from three continents, including the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union. It can be said to be a massive investigation. According to the investigation, these manipulative behaviors have already appeared since 2005.
Ultimately, the banks involved were fined hundreds of millions of dollars, and a large number of senior executives resigned as a result.
And they manipulate Libor and Repo through the British Bankers Association, which specifies these...
Since he knew that this matter would break out sooner or later, Barron had no interest in getting involved in it. After all, the Standard Chartered Bank he currently owned mainly had its business in emerging markets outside of the UK.
Otherwise, even if he does not participate in the manipulation at that time, those supervisory agencies will definitely investigate the banks under his control, causing trouble.
"Barron, I want to talk to you alone..."
The Prince of Wales brought Barron to a room above the party hall. After they sat down, his expression became a little serious.
"Does the matter concerning Kolo have anything to do with you?"
Barron did not feel too shaken when he heard the Prince of Wales' question. He himself did not think that his presence in Kolo could be concealed from everyone.
His expression was relaxed, and he said calmly:
"Your Highness, I am a businessman, and I am only interested in making money. And being able to get Colo out of French control and get closer to us in England is in its own way good for Great Britain, isn't it?"
"Even though that's what they said, the French have already expressed their dissatisfaction with us. And it's not just the French who are paying attention to Kolo, but also the Americans..."
"Yankee?"
Barron smiled and said:
"Kolo has no oil, so they won't be interested."
"No matter what, I hope you can act prudently and not play with fire."
Although Barron agreed with the Prince of Wales' words on the surface, he still disagreed in his heart.
Britain has finally fallen. Where has the energy of the empire gone? Is it worth the prince to mobilize so many troops for a small country like Kolo?
However, considering that since Margaret Thatcher, Argentina has almost failed, the current performance is reasonable.
Therefore, without the rise of great powers, there would be no dignity for the common people. Now, even the mighty British Empire has to follow closely behind the United States, making it inconvenient for them to act.