Royals & Nobles and Wealth, Costs and Finances


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Umm.. not to be rude, but do you know anything about how the government of Monaco functions? The monarchy there is extremely active, useful, and necessary to the way the government operates.

The Monegasques pay no income tax, therefore, wherever the Grimaldis get their income from, should not get anyone excited. Besides the arrival of Grace Kelly put them on the map. The subsequent hoopla brought them prosperity and everyone benefited.
 
I love when people say "not to be rude" because it usually means they are trying to be rude lol. :whistling:

Boy, speaking of rude.

I was not trying to be rude. I was trying to clarify that the person in question clearly does not know how Monaco operates, and it could have come across as rude.
 

When Belgium was facing the political crisis, recently and talk about splitting the country and abolishing the monarchy was the talk of the day, there were a lot of reports about how much each royal costs, in addition to the residences they own etc etc.
With regard to the Spanish Royal family I read a lot of times that the subject in Spain is taboo. There is speculation as to how the sons in law earned their crust but nothing specific was ever discussed. I suppose the regard the Spaniards have for KJC keeps the reports to a minimum.
 
Boy, speaking of rude.

I was not trying to be rude. I was trying to clarify that the person in question clearly does not know how Monaco operates, and it could have come across as rude.

Boy? I find that very condessending.

Did Belgium seriously consider abolishing the royal family? I remember reading sometime back that one of the Royal Princes was involved in a financial scandal of some kind. Who in the Belgian royal family is funded by taxpayers? Thanks
 
One question: Are we calculating with just the sums they get from the various civil lists, and renovations, or also the more "hidden" variables that we have no way of knowing the costs of, such as the protection details?
 
One question: Are we calculating with just the sums they get from the various civil lists, and renovations, or also the more "hidden" variables that we have no way of knowing the costs of, such as the protection details?

Well there in lies a mystery lol. The British Royal Family seems relatively open about its finances,however the Danish royal family seems to only list limited finances. The Dutch royal family,according to various reports i've read state that the Dutch royals cost anywhere from 80millionto 133 million euros. This i guess includes all costs, such as secuirty etc, where as the British royal family does not disclose security costs or armed forces costs but costs the taxpayer costs the taxpayer £40million, but could cost up to £100million with these additional costs.

So i wonder if we will ever know the true cost of every royal family, does anyone know which royal family "hides" finances in other government departments etc?
 
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Boy? I find that very condessending.

Did Belgium seriously consider abolishing the royal family? I remember reading sometime back that one of the Royal Princes was involved in a financial scandal of some kind. Who in the Belgian royal family is funded by taxpayers? Thanks
Prince Laurent's assistant was in court and testified that the prince was involved in some sort of kickbacks, with regard to some navy contracts.
The recent times when the French speaking and Dutch speaking Belgians could not form a government and the Dutch speaking preferred to divide the country, there was talk about abolishing the monarchy. Luckily they formed a government late last year and so far so good.
 
I'm no political or financial expert, but as far as I can gather from the report from the Norwegian cabinet: the Norwegian royal house received 162.5 mil. NOK last year. (roughly £16 mil.) 22% more than the year before. There is some jarring in the numbers with some newspaper articles I've seen, which suggest the royal house gets less than this.

Annual report for 2007 (Albeit in Norwegian): 138 of those millions went to the King and Queen - court operations, palace renovations, staff costs (wages, pensions, etc. which received 78 mil.), etc. The monarchs received roughly 8 mil for personal use.

Haakon and MM received roughly 12 mil. 5.9 of those were for personal use.

In addition to this, according to newspapers, there is security, aide de camps, and various upkeep of the royal state-owned residences that are dealt with by others. Other newspapers claim that the upkeep to the state-owned residences - the Palace, Bygdø & Oscarshall are covered by the numbers above. Confusing.
 
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Thanks norwegianne!! Doesn't sounds like alot lol especially compared to the BRF. But i suppose its hard to compare royal families costs. It surprises me how open the british royal family finances are when compared to other royals across the Europe.
 
Thanks norwegianne!! Doesn't sounds like alot lol especially compared to the BRF. But i suppose its hard to compare royal families costs. It surprises me how open the british royal family finances are when compared to other royals across the Europe.

Open compared to who? All three of the Scandinavian royal houses provide annual reports of their activities, including accounts of the money they receive from the state, much as the British does. :ermm:
 
Open compared to who? All three of the Scandinavian royal houses provide annual reports of their activities, including accounts of the money they receive from the state, much as the British does. :ermm:


Sorry it just seemed to me that you were saying there was some confussion over some of the finances and what covered what etc. I know that the Scandinavian royal houses release reports and i just wish they were in English so i could read them lol. I was referring more to the royal houses of the Netherlands, Monaco and Spain whom i do not believe, though i could be wrong and if i am then im sorry, release annual reports of finances.
 
Interesting topic. I'm glad someone put the numbers cause it makes it easier to compare.

Haakon and MM received roughly 12 mil. 5.9 of those were for personal use.

That's a lot of money, what are we calling for personal use. Does that include the expense of his last expedition for that charity with Victoria and the cute Dane (what is his name!?) ? Comparing isn't the same because the BRF is huge, it seems like it could be half of London. I don't understand much about Monaco, but I thought most of their money was from inheritance. I would understand why people would be flustered if they were paying for everyone in the family. After a while there needs to be a cut off like if you're not helping in some way shape or form.
 
The Belgian royal family costs £22million if it does cost 28million euros

Hi Tommy, I am sorry but I don't agree the annual income about 22 millions euros by Belgian Royal Familly but only costs 12 millions euros per year!!!!!

The extremist and racist right flemish like Vlaams Belang party says that our Royal Family costs about 22 millions euros annually or it's of course FALSE!
This racist party is lying indeed...

It's only cost 12 millions euros but 70% of Civil Dotation goes for salaries employments, secretaries and staffs, palace works, administrations, electricities, transports, etc etc and only 30% of 12 millions euros for the Belgian Royal Family as "salary" annually! Calculate : 12.000.000 euros - 70% = 3.600.000 euros per year and the belgian populate is more than 11.000.000 so each belgian pays only 0.33 euros per year ;-)

Of course, our Belgian Monarchy is costing very cheaper than the Republic of France as Elysee Palace, it's costing very expensive annually more than 98 millions euros only for the President Sarkozy ( + monthly salary more than 18.000 euros and their staffs!)

Kinds Regards :)
 
my sincere apologies, i did say IF it costs 28million euros, i took the higher figure to show that even using that figure the cost of the Belgian royal family is less than the british royal family, no offence meant. :)
 
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The Moroccan royal family cost £144.6 million p/a in 2005.

"The Moroccan King, Mohammed VI, spends £3.6 million ($8.8 million) a month on staff wages, £97,000 on car repairs and almost £53,000 on animal feed, according to a breakdown of the palace budget that has enraged his poverty-stricken subjects.
Details of the lavish spending - the first time that the finances of a royal Arab household have been revealed - show that the king costs Moroccan taxpayers £144.6 million ($353 million) a year, 18 times more than Queen Elizabeth."



Ruling Morocco, on $967,100 a day - World - www.smh.com.au
 
That all seems a little unnecessary. I mean, 97,000 on car repairs A MONTH??? And when I broke it down, the people working in the palace get an average of 3700/month, compared to their poorer counterparts that don't even get 1/day!! I can understand being royalty and all, and loving cars and wanting to take care of the people that take care of you, but what about the rest of the Morocco?
 
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Sorry if I sounded slightly ignorant about Monaco's monarchy. But some of what they do is somewhat unnecessarily extravagant.

Anyway, I just think that for personal use, millions of euros or dollars just shouldn't be taken from tax and should be spent on health care, education or something useful, like AIDS research or something. I know they need enough to maintain themselves but maybe they could cut down a little you know, increase useful productivity for their countries maybe? Hope this doesn't offend anyone.
 
That's a lot of money, what are we calling for personal use. Does that include the expense of his last expedition for that charity with Victoria and the cute Dane (what is his name!?) ?
It's about £584,000, converted. A lot, but not really an extreme sum, taking the press attention into account. Haakon didn't really receive a large sum before he was married - he got about £15,000 a year, (the regular Norwegian student receives £8,000 a year in scholarship/loan from the state, but a lot of them work, so they end up on the same sum as Haakon had, if not more.) His sister received about £12,000. (After renouncing her HRH, she doesn't get anything) A comment on the sums from Dagbladet says that "Also this year, the two must be helped out by their parents, economically." The sums they got were okay to survive on, if they weren't in need of extra clothes for representation, apartments in more secure areas of town, and so on.


The personal use is not specified, just as regular employers don't specify what you should spend your wages on, neither does the Norwegian state for the personal sum the royals get. It is stuff like clothes, food, personal holidays, whatever they'd like to do with the interior of their home, and so on. Norway was the 5th most expensive country in the world to live in, in 2007.
 
The government recently alculated that the total costs of the Dutch monarchy are 104 million euros. But there has been a heated debate in parlament about it as the finances were very unclear. Things were booked at other departments than they ahd too, the costs of the maintenance of the Queens ship was booked far too high, the travel expenses far too low etc etc. The PM said he would give clarity soon but it is extremely difficult since 7 different ministeries are involved. And what should be booked under 'monarchy' anyway? If the mayor of Tjierkstradeel accompanies HM for an afternoon that he visits his village he will be compensated for the hours, would that be booked under 'monarchy'? If the president of X. is greeted on the airport by HM and they have some regiments there to greet him, will those costs be booked under 'monarchy'? I think in general it does get booked under that, which gives a false sense of the total costs since these costs are not for the monarchy but for the normal functioning of the state.

The dotations to members of the RF directly is the following:

- The Queen: € 3.896.000,-- (appr. US $ 5,064,800.--)
- The Prince of Orange: € 933.000,-- (appr. US $ 1,212,900.--)
- Princess Máxima: € 822.000,-- (appr. US $ 1,068,600.--)

And they still have to pay staff etc. from this.
 
Prince Laurent's assistant was in court and testified that the prince was involved in some sort of kickbacks, with regard to some navy contracts.

He actually had to testify himself, the problem was that, according to the court, he had furnished his house and let the Belgian Navy pay for it. (The Belgian King repaid everything after the trial.)
Later he was involved in a scandal again, when a journalist revealed that he owns a villa in Italy, which is rundown now because of bad maintenance. This was of course a big scandal, because rumours went that he had complained about not having any money, but he did own a villa worth milions.

In Belgium, the following members of RF receive a dotation: King Albert, Queen Fabiola, Prince Philippe, Princess Astrid and Prince Laurent. The total of these dotations indeed amounts to some €15 milion, but some say you should also include other costs, like the maintenance of buildings like the Royal Palace in Brussels, the security provided by police and army, etc. Maybe then it amounts to 28 mil?
Of course, le_ptit_diablotin is right in pointing out that you should check your sources. Vlaams Belang wants nothing better than to abolish the monarchy and separate Wallonia and Flanders, so they are bound to try and shock the population by coming up with other (higher) figures than the official ones. The truth is, that it is difficult to say how much they cost, because the Belgian RF is rather closed about what they do with their money, especially compared to the UK, where there is an annual report of expenses, which is extremely detailed.
 
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my sincere apologies, i did say IF it costs 28million euros, i took the higher figure to show that even using that figure the cost of the Belgian royal family is less than the british royal family, no offence meant. :)

Oh please don't worry about the offence :) I just try to explain more clearly the very complexed about the cost of Royal Family. First I truly respect the freedom of liberty speech on press or media but I am intolerate about lying or propagande or exagered or some medias trying to give the very bad influence to people, trying to attract to have more money... Take one example : the tragedy of Princess Diana.
As I say and truly believe that the Republic is often more expensive than the Monarchy.
Kinds Regards :flowers:
 
what about Jordan??
anyone had idea about their spending i couldn't find anything about the JRF and how they spend money.
 

That's what I heard too about the Liechtensteins. From what I read, the taxpayers used to reimburse them for the cost of security, but either Hans Adam II or his father stopped it. So all the expenses the Liechtenstein incur, they pay from their own money.
 
I wonder if anyone could tell me if any royals, and if so which royals, are given money for personal expenditure (not for staff or travel but for clothes, private holidays etc) in some way? I've read all sorts of conflicting reports about who does and doesn't and how much.
 
Forbes has again published its Richest Royal List, listing the 15 Richest Royals in the world. King Bhumibol Adulyade of Thailand is ranked at number 1, Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein of Liechtenstein is the highest ranking European Royal at number 6, with Prince Albert of Monaco at number 9, Queen Elizabeth II at number 12 and Queen Beatrix at number 14. No other European Royals appear in the list

Article:
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/08/...ls-biz-richroyals08-cz_ts_0820royalintro.html
Picture Slide Show:
http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/20/wo...-cz_ts_0820royal_slide_2.html?thisspeed=25000

1. King Bhumibol Adulyade of Thailand (£18.79bn)
2. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates (£12.35bn)
3. King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia (£11.27bn)
4. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei (£10.74bn)
5. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai (£9.66bn)
6. Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein of Liechtenstein (£2.68bn)
7. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar (£1.07bn)
8. King Mohammed IV of Morocco (£805.4m)
9. Prince Albert II of Monaco (£751.7m)
10. Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman (£590.1m)
11. Prince Karim Aga Khan (£536.9m)
12. Queen Elizabeth II (£349m)
13. Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah of Kuwait (£268m)
14. Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgardof the Netherlands (£161m)
15. King Mswati III of Swaziland (£107.4m)
 
I didn't know Thai king is that rich! Learn something new everyday.. :)
 
:previous:
See post #250.

Keep in mind that all of these numbers are pure guestimates and the only people who know the true figures are the royals themselves, their financial advisers and their bankers, and none of them would be talking.
 
"HRH The Prince of Wales funds himself through funds raised by the Duchy of Cornwall."

I read in the french paper Le Monde some days ago that the 24th Duke of Cornwalles has a real estate company, too. He is very rich.
 
tan_berry;814840I read in the french paper Le Monde some days ago that the 24th Duke of Cornwalles has a real estate company said:
I always llikes to go to the source to get background info. nothiing against Le Monde, but sometimes, things gets lost in translationL http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/
 
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