Can King Charles continue to offer Britain ‘value for money’?

Seven decades of the queen’s careful management have allowed Britain’s royal family to retain their wealth and privilege while staying relevant

It’s now up to the new monarch to maintain the working royals’ prestige and continue to play a soft power role without burdening taxpayers

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Britain’s King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, with his mother Queen Elizabeth on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London on June 2 during the queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations. Photo: AFP

David Dodwell

David Dodwell is CEO of the trade policy and international relations consultancy Strategic Access.

Published: 1:30am, 17 Sep 2022Updated: 2:00am, 17 Sep 2022

They call it “The Firm” – the multibillion business that has for the past 70 years been headed by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, and which last week was “inherited” by King Charles III.

This enterprise manages the discrete but formidable wealth of Britain’s royal family, ensuring a more-or-less stable peace between Britain’s privileged aristocracy and its common working voters.

The Firm – a term first used by King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s father – enables what ought to be impossible: a robust democracy functioning alongside a hereditary monarchy and aristocracy that retains huge wealth, but in exchange provides stability and an invaluable sense of tradition that goes back centuries.

This Faustian bargain has been justified in terms of value for money, and has remained intact in large part because of the modest moral example of the queen herself.

People wait in line to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth in central London on September 15. Photo: AP

Following her death, the fate of The Firm now sits with Charles. How he manages his role will influence the fate of Britain itself as the government strives to retain soft power around the world despite steady postcolonial (and post-Brexit) decline.