[Pride and Prejudice] Mary's Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 40 Go to Regent Street to buy a house

This year is 1811. Too many things happened in this year. The death of Princess Amelia last year made King George III a big blow. Crying or muttering to himself, he can no longer govern the country normally. The king, who has been loved by the majority of the people all his life, had to withdraw from his political arena regrettably. The Congress announced that his eldest son George IV would become the regent. 2 began to officially replace his father in running the country.

After the regent came to power, he was so happy that he couldn't find east, west, north and south. He celebrated for himself, not only entertaining the visiting envoys and monarchs, but also building various buildings in London. For this reason, he spared no expense to ask The famous architect John Nash came, who later designed and built many buildings for George IV.

What caught Uncle Gardiner's attention was that the Prince Regent wanted to build a new road between his palace and the park, and he named the street Regent Street.Uncle Gardiner believes that the two sides of this road will definitely become the golden center of London. If you buy real estate here, you will definitely make a profit. Even if you don’t buy a house and just rent it to open a shop, it will definitely be worth it. Another commercial center.

So he wrote to Mr. Bennet, hoping to let his daughters come to have a look, and if he buys a property here and rents it out in the future, the rent will be enough for the women of the Bennet family to live comfortably.

The Bennet family has made some money over the years, but the money is in the hands of Mary, the family's chancellor of the exchequer, so of course Mr. Bennet has to seek Mary's advice.

After seeing the letter, Mary was very interested. She thought that the houses there were either unbuilt or old houses. No matter whether she bought land to build herself or bought an old house and rebuilt it, the cost would never exceed 1 pounds. The Bennet family can afford the money, but the problem is that Mary, who has experienced news about unfinished buildings in her previous life, has some doubts about this. What if the project is half unfinished?Or will it lose money if it does not become a commercial center in the future?

She asked Jane and Elizabeth to discuss the matter together, and Jane asked her, "How much money do we have now?"

Fanny Foods has opened a few more branches in the past two years, including Meriton's, a total of six, with an annual net income of around 9000 pounds. The cannery started to make a profit last year, with a dividend of 6000 pounds. The Bennet family I made a lot of money from these two industries, but at the same time, I invested a lot in the opening of the store. In addition, last year a man named Peter Duran invented the patent of using tinplate for can packaging. Uncle Gardiner and Ray Mr. Ke decided to buy this patent and open another canning factory (the size of the original canning factory has been tripled), and they need money in all aspects. They earn a lot of money, but they spend it quickly, so they bank There is not much balance in the account.

"About twelve thousand pounds," said Mary, winking at her two sisters. "There's another six thousand pounds in Daddy's account..."

In the past two years, the expenses of the Bennet family have gradually increased as the daughters grow up, but most of the income from Longborn's real estate has been kept and deposited in the bank.

That's because the Bennets now do most of their shopping in London.

In the past, Mr. Bennet didn't like to go to London, so the women of the Bennet family didn't have many opportunities to go to London, but now there are several properties of the Bennet family in London, and Mrs. Bennet often finds excuses to take a few daughters with her. Going shopping in London, and spending the profits of the grocery store there, Mary didn't stop her from doing it. The sisters did need more clothes and jewelry as they got older, and they had five daughters in their family.

"Let's not make up our minds about Dad's money. He will never agree to use that money before we get married." Elizabeth quickly stopped her sister's whims.

"Well, I know it's hard." Mary was not disappointed at all. She actually didn't think there was anything wrong with Mr. Bennet's mature and prudent attitude. After all, no matter what business you do, you are in danger of losing money, and the British People are cautious in their bones, which is one of the reasons why real estate is favored by the British, because real estate will never lose money.

Jane wondered: "Are we not enough money?"

"That's not true, it's just that I'm afraid of the risk." Mary explained her concerns to her.

I didn't expect Jane to be more confident than her: "The plan made by His Royal Highness the Regent cannot be abandoned halfway, and even if it is abandoned halfway, there will be no loss. That is London."

Jane is an optimist and never predicts anything in a bad direction, and Mary also thinks her thinking is quite reasonable.She looked at Elizabeth again. Elizabeth had just read her uncle's letter. She raised her head and said to Mary: "Your idea is not unreasonable. From the temperament of our regent, he is far worse than his father. He has always He likes extravagance and extravagance. The Congress allocates so much money to him every year, and there is no way to pay off the huge debts for him. Now he is building a lot in London. It is hard to say whether these buildings will be completed. .”

Jane was a little nervous when she heard this: "So this street may really be abandoned halfway?"

"That's not going to happen," Elizabeth said with certainty, "this road will connect Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, so close to Buckingham Palace, only 1 mile, the house prices there are not cheap, I think we just buy Those old houses will never suffer."

Mary didn't know about these things. She didn't know anything about London's urban planning, and she was even more confused about London's intricate roads. Now that Elizabeth said this, she immediately became a little anxious: "So we don't have enough money?"

"That depends on what kind of house we buy." Elizabeth said with a smile, "Uncle is not the only one who has vision. Our top priority is to go to London to see if the house is suitable, we must sell it quickly."

Mary immediately agreed, and this time the three sisters decided to go together.

After Mrs. Bennet knew that they were going to leave for a while, she was very anxious: "It will be your dance soon, and you are still running around. Are you proficient in your dance steps? Are your clothes ready? Your jewelry Are you ready? If you continue to be careless and sloppy like this, then you will never get married!"

"I thought that only the lack of money would prevent me from getting married."

"There are always more rich ladies than rich gentlemen, so you must not take it lightly. After all, you are not as beautiful as my other daughters!" Mrs. Bennet hit Mary mercilessly.

But Mary didn't care. She has black hair and black eyes, and she thinks she looks like a Chinese-foreigner. Of course, this kind of flat look is not popular in the UK, but sometimes she looks at herself in the mirror, and she thinks she looks pretty good. It's alright, at least she's much prettier than in her previous life, with a high nose and big eyes, is she content?

Therefore, Mrs. Bennet's blow did not stop Mary and her sisters from going to London. She acted like a baby to Mrs. Bennet: "Dear mother, just because your daughter is not good, I need your help more. I just entrust you with the matter of the ball, after all, you have already been familiar with it and have rich experience, Jane and Elizabeth's ball is always mentioned by people, and everyone said that the two balls were perfect!"

Mrs. Bennet was very fond of such flattery, and she herself thought that with her talents, a little dance would be no problem.

So the three Bennet sisters set off early, this time Lydia and Kitty didn't make any noise to follow, they said they would stay and help Bennet take care of the chores at the ball.The two children were so sensible, and their three older sisters were very pleased, and promised to bring them beautiful gifts when they came back.

But the three of them stayed there for two months as soon as they went to London, which no one expected.

London's social season has just begun, and since His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has just taken power, there will inevitably be some excitement in London that is different from previous years. Dance parties are also held more intensively.

The Bennet sisters didn't have time to pay attention to these things. The housing prices on Regent Street have increased a little now. As Elizabeth said, Uncle Gardiner is not the only discerning businessman. If it weren't for the lack of money, even Mr. Lake I want to buy a house there.

However, since Uncle Gardiner put forward the idea, of course he has some connections. Mr. John Nash, the designer of this road, is already in his old age. He lived in London in his early years, but unfortunately he was still unknown at that time. After a series of blows, he went bankrupt, and even his wife left him. At that time, Mr. Nash left London for Wales in despair, where he really became a mature professional architect.

It is worth mentioning that the age difference between Uncle Gardiner and Mr. Nash is more than ten years old. They did not know each other in London at first, but later Uncle Gardiner often traveled between Wales and England for business reasons. Mr Nash knew and had assisted Mr Nash, and this allowed their friendship to continue when Mr Nash returned to London, a few years before Mr Nash was given a Royal Appointment to Manage Buildings for his great achievements in architecture and gardening And the environment secretary, Mr Nash was all the rage for a while.

But of course he is not a person who is rich and easy to make friends. This time, His Royal Highness the Regent is going to take a break to build Regent Street. Mr. Nash knows that his old friend Gardiner has opened a cannery, and he thinks that if he wants to have a canned on this street. If it is a store, he may be able to do a little bit.

Uncle Gardiner was overjoyed. No matter how much the outside world criticized the Regent, he was always the first heir to the throne of the country. His position was unbreakable, and John Nash was the celebrity in front of him. He designed and supervised the regent. Many buildings, besides this Regent Street, also include various villas and parks.

As long as John Nash is willing to help, it is almost easy to spend money to buy a house on Regent Street. Of course, he has not forgotten his lovely nieces at this time. His current wealth has increased so rapidly, thanks to The credit of several children, but even if you don't mention these, even if he doesn't buy it himself, he will help the children buy a house here.

Because of the problem of limited inheritance, it is impossible for the nieces to inherit the real estate of Langborn in the future. For a few girls, the same money spent here is much higher than the interest collected by the bank. It is much more economical to buy a piece of land in the countryside.

When the nieces rushed to London, he and his wife immediately took the children to look at the house excitedly.