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Black aristocracy of Europe without makeup

Black aristocracy of Europe without makeup

Black aristocracy in Europe is not a myth, but the harsh reality

The centuries go by, states are created and disintegrated, monarchies change to republics, and the black aristocracy of Europe is still living and getting rich, despite the plight of the common people. Enemies should be known by sight. When will it all end?…

The real masters of Europe are flourishing, despite any crises

Author - Victoria Nikiforova

European aristocrats - heirs of ancient titles and fortunes - do not like to be featured in the press and avoid Forbes lists. It helps them avoid taxes., knock grants out of Brussels, trade sovereignty and rule the EU as your hereditary fiefdom. The real masters of Europe are still the same, that 500 years ago.

Study, conducted by economists from the Bank of Italy about a year ago, revealed, that during the last 600 years the richest people in Florence remained the same families. It broke the templates for many.

Throughout the 20th century, writers exploited the theme of the decline of the aristocracy and the death of "old money". Poems and novels were written about the ruin of noble nests. The poor flooded the screen and the stage, but noble nobles - from Lyubov Andreevna Ranevskaya to Blanche Dubois. In the imagination of a modern European, an aristocrat is an eccentric old man, barely heating a couple of rooms in a dilapidated ancestral castle with a leaking roof.

And suddenly it became clear, that famous aristocratic families survived all social cataclysms. Despite the general leveling of world wars and revolutions, they managed to preserve and increase their gigantic fortunes, the volume of which is now uncountable.

Holders of resounding titles still control Europe's most valuable asset - its land and real estate. Counts of Kavdor, mentioned by Shakespeare in Macbeth, and today they live in their ancestral castle. German princes Fürstenberg, leading their own family since the XIII century, also live in family residences - Weytra and Heiligenberg castles and in the princely palace in Donaueschingen. And the legendary Schwarzenberg dynasty owns a dozen castles and palaces. Their most spectacular property is a huge palace in the center of Vienna.

Black aristocracy of Europe without makeup

The British have counted, that as 2010 a year, a third of all British land - the most expensive land in the world - was owned by the local aristocracy. The Duke of Westminster owns part of the famous districts of London - Mayfair and Belgravia. Count Cadogan owns the central part of the English capital - Cadogan Square, part of Sloane Street and Kings Road. Baroness Howard de Walden owns the prestigious London streets of Harley Street and Marylebone High Street.

All premises, located in these areas, for rent at the highest rental rate in the world. To buy a house, built by the owner of the land, almost impossible - for hundreds of millions of dollars, only the right to lease a mansion for a period of 35 years. At the same time, the buyer annually pays the owner additionally for the lease of land under the house..

Countless books are kept in noble castles and palaces, paintings, antique furniture, works of art. It is impossible to calculate their total cost even approximately.. This is one of the reasons, that the European nobility rarely gets on the Forbes lists. "Old money", as opposed to newly earned capital, love silence.

Black aristocracy of Europe without makeup

It was Gates and Zuckerberg's assets that went through the IPO, and anyone can see, what time are they priced in the market. The property of noble families, acquired over the centuries, reliably hidden from prying eyes. English, eg, have been trying to find out for a long time, which land does Edward William Fitzalan-Howard own?, 18-1st Duke of Norfolk. The duke himself speaks modestly about his estates.: “I farm little by little in West Sussex…».

It is difficult to "weigh" even those riches, officially announced. How much can it cost, eg, the originals of the Velazquez and Goya, letters by Christopher Columbus, palaces in Seville and Madrid and the first edition of Don Quixote, owned by the family of the 19th Duke of Alba? According to various estimates, his condition is estimated from 600 million to 4,7 billion euros. The spread of numbers clearly shows, how conditional are all estimates.

It would seem, the owners of all this fabulous luxury should have ruined government fees long ago. Any attempt to sell the house, a painting or antiques for a mere mortal is fraught with the need to pay a very unpleasant capital gains tax. In Spain, his rate goes up to 34 percent, in England - before 40. The same tax is levied on inheritance.

But if ordinary Europeans are forced to immediately sell inherited real estate, to pay tax, their noble compatriots use detours. The most popular is to transfer the palace with all its property to the ownership of a special fund. Manage the fund, of course, family members themselves. As a result, new generations take over the super-expensive property, but do not pay a cent to the budget.

Other tricks are used when selling antiques. AT 2001 year the owners of Howard Castle in North Yorkshire sold a painting by the famous artist Joshua Reynolds for 9,4 million pounds. To avoid paying taxes, they stated, that the painting is not a unique work of art, and part of the "fabrics and upholstery of the castle". AT 2014 year, the Court of Appeal found them right - probably, judges showed class solidarity, and the hole in the budget was closed at the expense of ordinary taxpayers.

Black aristocracy of Europe without makeup

Despite all the revolutionary upheavals of the 20th century, noble families preserved not only their wealth, but also that power, what goes to these riches a bonus. AT 1999 Tony Blair attempted to clear the House of Lords of hereditary peers. but, in spite of all cuts, the old nobility of England continues to exercise supreme legislative activity. They also do not disdain the executive power: in the government of Theresa May, formed in June 2017 of the year, work one graph, one viscount and three barons.

Even in such a modern structure, like brussels bureaucracy, aristocratic families managed to find their feeder. Since they own hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, they position themselves as "farmers", Consequently, apply for substantial subsidies, allocated in the EU to support agriculture. The amount of the subsidy is directly proportional to the size of the land owned. Every year such "farmers", like the duke of marlborough, Duke of Northumberland, the Duke of Westminster and Lord Rothschild receive from Brussels from 700 thousands to 1 million pounds. In this sense, Brexit them, of course, did not please.

About the possessions of the 18th Duchess of Alba, deceased in 2014, said, that she can go from north to south of Spain, never leaving her land. All this economy, yet again, subsidized by the EU. AT 2006 peasants, farmed Alba, went to a protest demonstration. they demanded, so that at least part of the multimillion-dollar subsidies reaches those, who really works on the ground. Demonstration brutally dispersed, and the duchess called the protesters "psychos" and "bandits". As a result, the court sentenced her to a fine of 6 thousand euros, and the EU continued to subsidize the Alba estates.

These agricultural tricks pale against the backdrop of successful commerce, which the grand dukes deployed, reformatted their principalities into offshores. The Princes of Monaco have turned their state into the most famous tax haven for individuals. The Grand Dukes of Luxembourg did the same for companies and firms.

Black aristocracy of Europe without makeup

The media fame of aristocrats does not correspond to their real influence and wealth - they prefer not to get involved with the gossip. The only exception is the royal family of Windsor and the Duchess of Alba, who was moved by her mind in her old age.. There are reasons for this modesty..

At first, it helps to avoid public attention to huge fortunes, non-standard ways of getting rich and avoiding taxes. In an era of social stratification and the impoverishment of the middle class, this is especially important.

Secondly, the capital of the aristocracy in full accordance with Marx was often acquired by criminal means. And it's not just about legendary antiquity, fencing times, piracy, colonial wars and the slave trade. Throughout the 20th century, noble families survived and enriched themselves, cooperating with the most controversial political regimes.

Princes Borghese and Torlonia supported Benito Mussolini. The Duke of Alba officially represented Francisco Franco in London during World War II. Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza profited from cooperation with the Third Reich, and his daughter Countess Margit welcomed the SS men in her castle and threw parties for them. During one such celebration, drunken guests shot about two hundred captured Jews. Paintings, expropriated from the Jews, later entered the famous art collection of Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Despite all the blows and the change of eras, aristocratic families of Europe continue to flourish. Their wealth is a gray area of ​​the global economy. Their inheritance rights and tacit power are the flip side of European democracy. The only thing, what can prevent aristocrats today, Is public opinion and publicity. Old money loves silence.

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