Chu Xiangqian took out more than a dozen photos in the bag, and then listened to Deng Fei say that the Cao family is in the same lineage, and now even the husband's family of the daughter who married out is dead.

Only then was I relieved.

However, he was not in a hurry to pick up his women back.

This time it was cheaper for Linda, and for half a month, she was alone with Chu Xiangqian.

After that, Chu Xiangqian flew to the ranch first, continued to interrupt the money transportation business for two months, and helped Pablo transport a full $60 million to Panama City.

After getting $18 million in cash, he spent a week with Fei Fei, Zheng Shufen and Baoyi's mother and daughter at the ranch.

Only then did he fly back to the capital to accompany Xue Jinglan and Hong Kong Sheng.

Occasionally go out to play games with Qin Huairu and Lou Xiao'e, or live in Jinxiu and Jinzhi in Yuetan Park.

Unconsciously, after Chu Xiangqian flew to the ranch again and traded with Pablo again, the news finally came from London that Elizabeth was going to award him a medal.

Flew to London, under the watchful eyes of a dozen great nobles, and received the Grand Cross awarded by Elizabeth.

Officially a knight for life.

At the dance party in the evening, Chu Xiangqian was also entering the sight of the upper class of the infant country for the first time, and not only several young and beautiful aristocratic ladies invited him to dance.

Mountbatten and other real nobles also took the initiative to form a small circle around him and chatted.

However, when it comes to it, it is still related to business.

Even the big nobles, even those at the level of dukes, are becoming more and more difficult to make money under the tide of the overall weakening of power.

It can even be said that in addition to real estate and farming, the aristocracy of Yingguo is already fundamentally outdated.

Those small and medium-sized aristocrats, in fact, as early as the early 20th century, began to make ends meet and could not sustain themselves.

Otherwise, there would not be so many aristocrats who are willing to marry a young lady from a rich family in the magnesium country who they make fun of as a bun.

By the 60s, with the loss of the main colonies of the Ying Kingdom and the loss of the management of the Suez Canal, the trend of the Ying Kingdom in decline has become more and more obvious.

Without the supply of low-cost raw materials in the colony, and the loss of the huge market of the colony, many goods in Yingguo naturally have no cost advantage when competing with similar goods in Europe and the United States.

Failure to export also means that imports will increase, and deficits will inevitably accumulate little by little.

It can be said that anyone with a little foresight knows that Yingguo is not a good place to invest.

But relatively speaking, basic industries such as terminals, waterworks, power and most importantly, the North Sea oil fields still have a lot of room for profitability and appreciation.

Otherwise, Li Gongtan would not have spent so much money to invest in England in the future.

It's a pity that Lao Li didn't expect that Ying Guoyan would withdraw from the European Union.

Without the cheap labor of Eastern Europe and the European market, finance alone cannot support the economy of the country, let alone the people of the magnesium country are not trustworthy.

said that after leaving the European Union, he would take them to play, but the result was that after leaving, he would not take Yingguo to play.

also took the opportunity to kick hard.

Chu Xiangqian naturally didn't mind taking others to make money while expanding his business circle for himself.

Not to mention, he had actually been eyeing Yingguo's electricity, running water, gas and docks as early as the year before last.

It's a pity that if you want to enter these industries, maybe it wasn't difficult in the 8 or 90s, but now, it's not ordinarily difficult.

Before Thatcher came to power, many of the country's basic industries were state-owned.

In other words, Yingguo also has state-owned enterprises, and they are enterprises that are completely controlled by the government.

Only after Thatcher came to power would he sell off most of the state-owned enterprises in exchange for a large amount of money for Downing Street.

Moreover, after the privatization of basic enterprises, it will become more dynamic, but it also means that the people of Yingguo will lose cheap water and electricity resources.

In the future, the price of these basic living needs will continue to rise, and even rise to the point that many low-income people have no money to turn on heating in winter.

Therefore, although Chu Xiangqian was concerned about these four industries, he also knew that now was not the best time to start.

At least if you want to buy a natural gas company that is not strictly controlled, you have to give Yingguo Capital a little sweetness first.

As for why natural gas companies are not strictly controlled, it is entirely because the price of oil and gas in these years is basically fixed.

Coupled with the North Sea oil and gas fields, the cost of using natural gas for the people of Yingguo will be lower than that of France, West Germany, and Italy.

Several natural gas companies in England are already facing a situation where they are losing money more and more when they sell.

In fact, natural gas pipelines have emerged in magnesium countries and Canada as early as the twenties and thirties.

But in the beginning, it was more about building large pipelines from the terminals or natural gas exporting countries to the liquefied gas stations in the cities.

This model is naturally more expensive than pipes entering thousands of households.

But a model has been used for decades, and many people are used to it, and they are not willing to accept the pipe into the house at all.

If you want to repair pipes into ordinary people's homes, you can only target newly started high-rise buildings.

It is equal to the number of pipeline users, which is not enough to spread out the cost of building pipelines, as well as the cost of providing supplements to households.

That's why Chu Xiangqian was given the opportunity to buy a natural gas company, but if he wants to continue to operate, it is also not easy.

Fortunately, Chu Xiangqian knows the general trend of the future.

As long as you sign a plan to acquire gas fields with local tyrants in the Middle East, you can buy the right to use the gas field for 30 or 50 years before the price of oil and gas soars several times.

If you lose three or five years and make a profit for decades, you will not do this business foolishly.

But before doing it, you still have to win over and win over the big nobles like Philips and Mountbatten.

Although their influence in Yingguo is getting lower and lower, and they will be constantly suppressed by politicians, the network is still there, and through them they win over politicians in Yingguo, and even pull them into partnerships.

In order to truly enter these industries with stable appreciation, not much profit, and not too high losses.

To put it bluntly, what is earned is the money brought about by the rise in market value brought about by the rise in real estate and industry.

Wait until oil and gas prices skyrocket, and that's when the real money is made.

Thinking of this, Chu Xiangqian couldn't help but think of the Knightsbridge Cultural Oriental Hotel that he had been talking about the year before last.

Opening a hotel in London, and it's a luxury hotel, depends more on fame.

The group of people who are famous, celebrities and wealthy will pursue a certain hotel.

So while Chu Xiangqian planned to use the hotel as bait, he decided to put aside Ge Bai and other ghosts, as well as Feibo, Langang, and Renault.

£4 million for the Knightsbridge building and £2 million for renovations.

Chu Xiangqian alone could easily scoop up the money, but Mountbatten, Philips, and Duke Cavendish quickly showed interested expressions after hearing about his plan.

And the most attractive thing is that Chu Xiangqian will let Universal Pictures shoot in the new hotel.

Once there is a film that, like Roman Holiday, is released all over the world and has received an excellent response.

In the future, there will definitely be many movie fans staying in the new cultural East, and even just coming to take pictures is enough to make the hotel famous all over the world.

In addition, Hong Kong Island's Chu's Film Company was also filmed in the hotel, and after the movie was released in Southeast Asia, it is believed that rich Asian people such as Hong Kong Island, Tianzhu, Malaysia, and Xinjiapo will most likely prefer the Cultural Orient when they come to London for vacation and business activities.

If it is rumored again, Philips or Margaret often appear in the hotel to hold banquets and business events, which will be more attractive to Southeast Asian guests.

When Philips and others heard this, their eyes couldn't help but light up.

There are many people in Yingguo who dislike the aristocratic system, but there are also many ordinary people who are very loyal to this system.

With the addition of foreign guests, it can make the business of this hotel boom.

Margaret and Norton were the first to offer to join the project.

Philips also has a certain understanding of Chu Xiangqian's ability to make money, after all, this guy has only been two or three years old, and he is worth hundreds of millions.

But he didn't have much cash in his hand, but fortunately, Philips was thick enough, and since the hotel needed to use his fame, that fame could naturally be counted as money.

As soon as he opened his mouth, he said that he only gave 500,000 pounds, but asked for 25% of the shares.

Not to mention that Chu Xiangqian didn't agree, even Mountbatten and Duke Cavendish would not let him take such a big advantage.

In the last bargain, Philips paid 500,000 pounds and took 15% of the shares.

Of the remaining 85%, Chu Xiangqian wanted to go 51%, but the others did not agree.

The shares were too small, and Mountbatten and Cavendish felt that it was not interesting.

Chu could only take a step back, only 35%, and the shares were placed in his own and Margaret's fund.

Mountbatten and Cavendish split 50 percent.

With Margaret stepping in, even if Philips, Mountbatten and Cavendish teamed up, they kicked themselves out of the boardroom.

You have to pass Margaret first.

Even, Chu Xiangqian didn't plan to focus on this Cultural Oriental Hotel in London at all.

Instead, he plans to obtain the brand authorization of Hong Kong Island Cultural Oriental Hotel and build this hotel branch on Hong Kong Island as a sole proprietorship.

In the future, in addition to the annual brand usage fee of tens of thousands of pounds to the head office, this hotel on Hong Kong Island will be owned by Chu Xiangqian.

In addition, the operation and capital exchange are independent of the head office.

To put it bluntly, it is to take advantage of the ghost's coercion to fool Hong Kong people and gringos who come to Hong Kong for vacation and travel to stay at the Hong Kong Island Cultural Oriental Hotel.

It's just that when it comes to the ratio of investment, it's another rhetoric.

Chu Xiangqian finally got impatient, and after thinking about it, he simply pulled Margaret, Norton, and Little Cavendish in together.

Don't look at little Cavendish and his father are father and son, but Chu Xiangqian has long known from Margaret's mouth that the relationship between father and son is actually not good.

Plus when it comes to money, father and son don't work.

In the future, there will be an opportunity, and when the father and son make more trouble, they will fool little Cavendish and his father to do it.

As long as their father and son are not of the same mind, hand over the hotel to Cavendish Jr. to manage, and stand on his side on the board of directors, Chu Xiangqian is willing.

There is no need for their father and son to turn against each other, just need to find trouble for the two of them, and Chu Xiangqian's shares will be safer.

Nord and Mountbatten can also be divided by this kind of thinking.

In the end, Chu Xiangqian only had 30% of the shares, but Margaret got 10%.

Philips 15%, Mountbatten 17.5%, Norton 5%.

Cavendish father and son, one 17.5% and the other 5%.

In terms of capital contribution, Chu Xiangqian got 5% more shares than before.

So the 40% added with Margaret was £2.7 million.

It is equivalent to an extra 300,000.

How others fund, Chu Xiangqian doesn't care.

Margaret was thrilled and excited to become a shareholder and board member of a future five-star hotel.

Not only was he very active in the construction of the hotel, but he also took the initiative to learn management.

And Norton and Cavendish Jr. are also looking forward to Chu Xiangqian's big cake.

Chu Xiangqian did not fool people, and in the future, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel will definitely open branches in major capitalist countries.

There are etiquette handed down by the aristocracy for hundreds of years, and the set of managing servants and housekeepers is used in the hotel industry.

And don't look at the national cuisine of Ying, it will be called dark cuisine in the future, but in fact, the menu of the nobility is very secret and cumbersome.

In the back kitchen serving Margaret, there is a head chef, 2 assistant sous chefs, and 4 maids.

For breakfast alone, there are six or seven dishes, and they are not repeated every day.

The habit of ordinary people in Yingguo to fry fish and chips, barbecue and chips, bacon omelette and chips all day long is entirely because the entire Yingguo was in dire need of supplies during World War II.

On the contrary, the fishery was preserved, and there was only fish and potatoes all day long, so naturally the habit of fried fish and chips or baked potatoes was formed.

It can be said that people born before and after World War II have grown up eating these for a generation.

When they have children, they naturally eat like this.

But the food of the aristocracy was different.

At that time, the dishes of the Tudor dynasty were the best in Europe, and when the king feasted, there were 14 appetizers, which shows how rich the dishes were.

But this is also related to the fact that at that time, Yingguo was in its heyday.

A large number of gold jewels and spice slaves were brought back from the colonies to sustain the aristocracy in extreme luxury.

This is the result of a large number of delicacies.

To put it bluntly, the food between European royal families is all about you borrowing from me, and I borrowing from you.

If you visit your house this year and think it's delicious, keep it for a month, and the dish will enter the recipes of other kings and nobles.

Even French cuisine is a combination of Italian cuisine, Germanic meat, Mediterranean vegetables, dairy cuisine, and Viking fish and pickled cuisine.

As long as you are willing to hire Margaret's chef to be the head chef of the hotel, you can make dozens of desserts alone.

On the contrary, Philips and Eliza, the husband and wife, eat and drink on weekdays, which seems a little simple.

This is actually normal, when Eliza ascended the throne, it was called a cautious.

Philips was a declining prince, and he didn't even have a place to live for a while, so he had to take refuge in the country of Ying.

If Eliza hadn't taken a fancy to him at the age of 13, it was foreseeable that Philips' life would have been more difficult than that of ordinary aristocrats.

And when Margaret was a daughter, she was spoiled by her parents.

When I was a sister, there was a queen sister who accommodated.

After meeting Chu Xiangqian, there was Chu Xiangqian who was spoiled, and the expenses of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in previous years suddenly increased by four or five times.

Life naturally develops in the direction of luxury.

Mountbatten and others agreed and hesitated to Chu Xiangqian's suggestion to set up a special aristocratic menu in the hotel.

(End of chapter)