Not long ago, Queen Elizabeth, who spanned two centuries, died at Balmoral Castle, Scotland, at the age of 96.
While the world is grieving and regretting the queen's death, Indian screen names have exploded on the Internet. They have been demanding the return of the "Mount of Light" diamond set in the crown of Elizabeth II to India.
Elizabeth II
One of the largest diamonds in the world, it was plundered during the British colonization of India. Numerous Indian screen names have called on Britain to return treasures belonging to India to offset the crimes committed by Britain during the colonial period.
But if atonement is really to be made, it is not enough to return the diamond. Because the wealth plundered by the British during their colonization of India was astronomical.
Some economists have calculated that between 1765 and 1938, Britain plundered nearly $45 trillion in assets from India.
What is this concept? You know, based on the current gross domestic product of the UK. They need to go 17 years without food or drink to repay this huge sum.
Mountain of Light diamonds
Most of this huge amount of money was divided between the British royal family and the British bourgeoisie. In the Age of Discovery, India was not the only country colonized by the British, and many other countries suffered from it, and a lot of wealth was plundered.
As a result, the British royal family has accumulated a lot of property. However, compared with the Thai royal family, the assets of the British royal family are still "small".
The wealth of the Thai royal family
In 2016, Thailand's ninth king, Bhumibol, passed away and was succeeded by Bhumibol's only son, Maha Vajiralongkorn. After Maha succeeded to the throne, there was always a rumor that Maha was the richest monarch in the world's existing royal family.
Bhumibol
So, is that really the case?
First of all, the Thai royal family is very special, and does not want the British royal family to disclose its property like the outside world. Therefore, the wealth of the Thai royal family can only be estimated.
Germany's public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has analyzed King Maha's estate. It said that the Thai royal family has assets of about $30 billion to $60 billion.
This set of data is obtained by Deutsche Welle after very precise calculations, so the credibility is relatively high. The time to estimate this set of data is 2020, and now it is 2022, and the assets of the Thai royal family are estimated to have increased a lot.
Thai royal family
So, where do all the Thai royal assets come from?
This is actually very similar to the British royal family, that is, it is accumulated through capital. The Thai royal family owns a large amount of land and property and is one of the largest landowners in Thailand.
Some people say that Thailand is not a constitutional monarchy, and the right of the king to own so much land?
In fact, Thailand's constitutional monarchy is different from the constitutional monarchy practiced in Britain and Japan. The royal family of Thailand still has a certain influence and power.
Maha
And all this is thanks to King Rama IX Bhumibol. King Bhumibol is a very influential king in Thailand, although he is from the royal family, but he cares about the people and has a high voice and status in the hearts of the masses.
In 1973, riots broke out in Bangkok, Thailand. Then-Thai Prime Minister Thanom made the wrong move, using brute force to kill 75 students.
In this case, Bhumibol stepped forward. He personally removed Tanon as prime minister and appointed a new prime minister. It was also at this time that the power of the Thai king was strengthened and he slowly gained some real power.
In the decades that followed, Bhumibol slowly consolidated his power by virtue of his prestige. This is also related to Thailand's special national conditions, and if Thailand's various forces want to develop, they must seek the help of the royal family. Over time, the Thai royal family gradually gained real power. With absolute power, the Thai royal family also quickly amassed a lot of wealth.
Maha
It is reported that the Thai royal family has a total of 40,000 rental properties, distributed throughout Thailand, with a total area of 6,560 square kilometers. As real estate prices continue to rise in Thailand, the Thai royal family is also enjoying the success and owning more and more wealth.
In addition, Thailand's tourism industry has also brought a lot of benefits to the king. Like the palaces and temples of the King of Thailand, foreigners need to pay for tickets when they go to visit, and these money end up in the pockets of the Thai royal family.
In addition to this, the Thai royal family also owns shares in two of Thailand's largest companies. In 2019, some people calculated that the value of these shares was about $12.2 billion.
In fact, the King of Thailand had it, and Queen Elizabeth II also had it during her lifetime. According to official statistics, the overall assets of the British royal family are about $88 billion, far exceeding the assets owned by the Thai royal family.
However, of the $88 billion in assets, Queen Elizabeth II's personal wealth is only about $500 million. Others can only be regarded as assets of the British royal family.
In 2018, Maha changed the law. The law provides that the king has the right to exercise direct control over the assets of the royal family. As a result, all the property of the Thai royal family became Maha's private property. Therefore, the personal assets of Elizabeth II during her lifetime are completely inadequate.
The extravagant life of the King of Thailand
After inheriting the throne and gaining great wealth, Maha began a very luxurious life. And Maha is a particularly profligate person, always inadvertently blooming his local tyrant temperament.
King Maha
For example, when he held his coronation, it cost $31 million. He made a very large battle, and the parade alone brought tens of thousands of people with him. In addition, the crown he crowned was extravagant. The Queen's "Mount of Light" diamond was mentioned earlier, which weighs 105 carats.
The diamond used for Maha's coronation, His Majesty the Gold, weighs 547.67 carats, making it the world's largest cut faceted diamond.
This diamond was originally given to King Rama IX by a Thai merchant. Later, after Maha succeeded him, the diamond became his asset.
In addition to the fact that the coronation ceremony was very grand and extravagant, Maha was also extravagant in his personal life. Maha loves cars so much that he has a collection of more than 600 luxury cars, most of which are limited editions, some of which have long since been discontinued.
Image from the Internet
And Maha is not only satisfied with land transportation, he often likes to travel abroad, so he also has a large fleet. Among them, there are 3 commercial aircraft, 4 Boeing passenger planes and 21 helicopters, which can be said to be "trench no".
In addition, Maha especially likes to go on vacation abroad. Every time I went, the pomp was very large, and I often brought dozens of maids.
After coming, he began to buy luxury goods on a large scale, spending money like flowing water. But even with Maha's luxury, his wealth has only increased.
First, Maha could receive $1 billion a year in salary after succeeding as king. In other words, most of his consumption is paid for by the Thai people. In addition, King Maha's property and investment brought great benefits.
Image from the Internet
Spend $3.5 billion to settle in Germany
As mentioned earlier, Maha loves to travel abroad. But it's not so much about tourism as about settling abroad. Because he spent a lot of his time abroad. Only when there is something to do, will I return to Thailand to deal with it.
Therefore, many Thai people also ridiculed Maha. In addition, some media outlets have ridiculed Maha's home country as "Germany" because Maha has lived here most of his life.
The taunt, though blunt, is appropriate. Compared to Bhumibol, Maha is indeed much worse. As mentioned earlier, King Bhumibol was dedicated to the Thai people during his reign. So after Maha took office, many people hoped that Maha would follow in Bhumibol's footsteps.
Maha
But Maha didn't care about it at all, but only cared about his own entertainment. Because Maha does have some fun, as early as when he was the crown prince.
Maha's father, King Bhumibol, had only one wife in his life and never had any scandals. Maha is different, his personal life is very rich, he has experienced several marriages.
Now accompanying him are Queen Suthida and Princess Srina. Before that, Maha had three more marriages. It's just that after a while, they all broke up for various reasons. But this did not affect Maha in the slightest, he still lived happily. However, these behaviors are very glaring in the eyes of the Thai people.
Because while Maha lived so comfortably, they lived a fiery life.
Image from the Internet
Like when the pandemic hit, Thailand's tourism industry was greatly affected, resulting in many people losing their jobs as a result.
Thailand's industry is already single, tourism is their majority, now the tourism industry is affected, the bottom people's jobs are naturally not guaranteed. And what is Maha doing at this time? He was traveling with dozens of beautiful attendants in Bavaria, Germany.
It is reported that he has booked 95 rooms in luxury hotels in Bavaria, and the cost of these rooms alone is as high as several million baht per day. In addition to living for himself and his servants, these houses also have a separate room for Maha's dog, which is really strange.
In order to be able to enjoy his stay in Germany, Maha even paid $3.5 billion in taxes.
Image from the Internet
Because King Bhumibol had two villas in Germany, after Bhumibol's death, Maha as his successor had the right to inherit Bhumibol's villas in Germany. But according to Bavarian law, Maha had to pay 30% of his inheritance from King Bhumibol.
In order to get this huge inheritance tax, the local government also struggled. They had impounded Maha's plane in order to make Maha compromise. If Maha wanted to live here all the time, the money would definitely have to be paid. However, for Maha, the money should be a number and does not affect him much.
But this caused displeasure with the Thai name, and many protested, demanding restrictions on the king's rights and proposals for reform. In this case, Maha can only return to China to show up.
Image from the Internet
To quell the anger, Maha decided to donate 155,200 square meters of land to two universities in Thailand to promote Thailand's education industry. These donated lands, for Maha, are also a "drop in the bucket", insignificant, after all, he has too much land in Thailand.
The gap between the King of Thailand and the commoners
In fact, the Thai people are forgiven for being so dissatisfied. Because the development of Thailand itself is not particularly good, many people at the bottom can only turn themselves into shemales in order to attract customers in order to mix and eat.
And if you want to become a shemale, you must inject estrogen for a long time. This will have a great impact on human health, so the average lifespan of shemales is only about 40 years old. Compared with the luxurious life of the Thai king, it is simply two extremes.
Maha
summary
In general, the King of Thailand is currently the most trenched in the royal family in the world. The wealth that many people have in their lifetime is also beyond the reach of others.
But no matter how much wealth you have, it is useless to have the hearts of the people. Maha should follow the example of the old Thai king Bhumibol and make good plans for the future of the Thai royal family.