The cost of the British Crown

In an article, the Guardian points out how expensive it has become for the British public to maintain the royal family

As part of its ‘Cost of the Crown’ series, the Guardian has uncovered a remarkable 46-page file in the archives of the India Office, the government department that was responsible for Britain’s rule over the Indian subcontinent. It details an investigation, apparently commissioned by Queen Mary, the grandmother of Elizabeth II, into the imperial origins of her jewels. The report, from 1912, explains how priceless pieces were extracted from India as trophies of conquest, and later given to Queen Victoria. The items described are now owned by the monarch as property of the British Crown.

The youngest son and heir to Ranjit Singh, the then Maharaja of the Sikh kingdom of Punjab, Duleep, was forced to sign over the Punjab to the conquering forces of the British East India Company in 1846. As part of the conquest, the East India Company plundered the legendary Koh-i-noor diamond. The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh kingdom and the East India Company in 1845 and 1846 in and around the Ferozpur district of Punjab. It resulted in defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession of Jammu and Kashmir as a separate princely state under British suzerainty. Today, the Koh-i-noor diamond sits in the crown of the late Queen Elizabeth, on display at the Tower of London, and it has become a symbol of Britain’s ruthless imperial history. The Timur ruby necklace was another priceless gem looted by the British from Singh’s treasury. “A pearl necklace consisting of 224 large pearls” was another jewel of the Lahore treasures sent to Queen Victoria.

After the Indian government let it be known that for Camilla, the Queen Consort, to wear the Koh-i-noor at King Charles’ coronation would elicit “painful memories of the colonial past”, the palace swapped it for a less controversial diamond. She will wear a recycled crown for the coronation that will not feature the Koh-i-noor diamond.

As Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said: “We have finally entered an era where colonial loot and pillage is being recognised for what it really was rather than being dressed up as the incidental spoils of some noble ‘civilising mission’. As we are seeing increasingly, the return of stolen property is always a good thing. Generations to come will wonder why it took civilised nations so long to do the right thing.”

In its ‘Cost of the Crown’ series articles, the Guardian says “Obituaries of Queen Elizabeth II uniformly applauded her calm stewardship of the realm, or her supposed non-interference in British politics. None mentioned another hallmark of her reign: entrenched secrecy, which has given rise to a culture in which the British people are deprived of the most basic information about the monarchy.”

Correspondence with the monarch or the heir, whether sensational or harmless, is banned from disclosure. The royals closely guard the secrets of their financial wealth, insisting it is “private” even when it is clearly born of their public roles – the Guardian criticised the fabled secrecy about royal wealth and royal matters.

In another article, the Guardian points out how expensive it has become for the British public to maintain the royal family -- the Borbones of Spain cost a mere £7.4m a year, while the British pay their Windsors a very pricey £86m a year. Since Elizabeth became Queen, she and Charles have received more than £1.2 billion in income, while the average British worker would have earned about £1.4m over the same period. The royals pay no corporation tax or capital gains tax on their substantial investment portfolios.

Earlier, it was colonial loot, and now it is the British citizens who pay through their noses to maintain an institution that has lost its utility. The answer to the Guardian’s attempt to discover precisely what public functions the royals have fulfilled in return for all the public money is less than convincing.

(The writer is a retired corporate professional)