Scion of a wealthy family

[onyx_treasure]

    When Luciaphil wrote in her column "scion of a wealthy family" in reference to David,  I began to think about just how wealthy the Collins family really is.  They own a cannery in some village in Maine, hardly a wealthy state.  How much wealth could a small cannery produce?  The house itself is expensive to maintain so most of it is closed off.  They have one housekeeper.  They live very frugally even by Maine standards.  The land they own is coastal so it would be subject to high taxes.  I think the wealth is just enough to live comfortably and maintain appearaces.

[Dr. Eric Lang]

I don't think they're all that wealthy. In the very early episodes of the series, we learn that Roger and Elizabeth were left equal shares of Collinsport Enterprises, but Roger sold his off and Elizabeth had to mortgage Collinwood to buy them back. Originally, it was stated that much of Collinwood was closed off by Elizabeth during these lean years in order to reduce her property taxes.

Presumably, Elizabeth managed to get herself back into the black after awhile, keeping control of the business. However, she was no match for Burke Devlin when he decided to buy a rival cannery in Logansport and easily outbid her for the property. So her resources are still not unlimited.

Still, you have to consider that in this original 13-week story line arc, the focus was on Burke Devlin's grudge match against the Collins family. He was determined to put them out of business and put them out of Collinwood itself, so in order for that to be feasible, it was necessary to make Elizabeth's financial security somewhat vulnerable. Once this angle was dispensed with, nothing more was mentioned of it.

Later, of course, artistic license re-wrote some of the early premise to explain that the east and west wings had been closed off long before Elizabeth was even born.

[Raineypark]

[backcolor=deepskyblue] Owning a cannery, I suspect the biggest problem for the Collins' is the cost of fish.  Today, the fishing industry is at the mercy of international forces that are frequently worse than seas or weather.

The Collins family is probably not cash rich....but any family that's sitting on large tracts of land along coastal Maine (or coastal-anywhere-in-America), is sitting on a huge fortune.

But if you were a Collins, would YOU be willing to sell that property??
Rainey[/backcolor]

[kuanyin]

I have never had the impression that the cannery is the grand total of their assets. I think it reasonable that most of their money is tied up in various investments.

I don't think it odd that a New England family would live frugally whether they had scads of money or not. We aren't talking nouveau riche out to make an impression!
I don't think they are rivalling Onassis in wealth, just that they have a good amount invested and a supposedly profitable business. (Whether that is realistic or not!)

I don't have a problem with that part, the family has been wealthy and continued to do well. What I have a problem with is that they ran this huge mansion for YEARS and YEARS with only one cantankerous handyman. Ok, obviously, noone has cleaned the closed off wings or the basement for a heckofa long time. But, we are supposed to think Lizzie cleaned the place from top to bottom in her cocktail dress? Or, choke, sputter, think that CAROLYN lifted a finger to help her?? Oh, I KNOW, Roger was always happy to pitch in and run the vacuum! Uhmmm, right.

The other part I find hard to take is how well it must pay to be a supernatural creature. We never see Barney or Wolfie boy rifling through their victim's pockets and emptying their wallets! Ok, I know that Barney is explained by the countless number of family jewels that he had hidden away and now he can live forever off the proceeds. (Can't you just imagine Joshua's fury at not being able to find them?!) Not believable, but at least a flimsy pretense in my book. But Chris? He is presented as middle class, and no fortune to be inherited as far as anyone can tell. But he certainly doesn't work.

At least the Rev. Trask had a job!

[Luciaphile]

The inference is that they own half the town.  That implies that they hold mortgages, outright own a great deal of property.  So I would presume that implies a lot of rental income and mortgage payments paid to them.

Cannery probably still brings in a chunk of change.  Sardines, I grant you and not tuna, but I get the impression that they're like the "Chicken o'the Sea" of Maine.  

Then, of course, investments in stocks, etc.

But, property taxes.  Large mansion=large taxes.  Income tax.  The family's main residence is in the U.S. so no tax breaks there.  Roger was going to sell his half of the dough to anyone.  Liz wanted to prevent that, so she bought him out.

From the stuff with Burke and Roger's inheritance, I inferred that what's happened is that the family is now cash-poor.  That is, they have assets, but they're tied up.  You're probably not going to sell the blue-chips, and maybe the income you're getting isn't that large.  You need cash, you mortgage a property.  But there's a limit to how much you can do that.  

And even if the money isn't what it was, there's that reputation to uphold.  The family is probably one generation away from the fate of Jedidiah Leland (to quote Mr. Bernstein: "One of those old families with a father that's worth ten million and then one day he shoots himself and it turns out there's nothing but debts."

Luciaphil

[onyx_treasure]

    I agree with you, kuanyin.  It is hard to picture Liz dusting or mopping.   However, I remember the movie "Mommie Dearest".  It depicted a rich movie actress down on her knees scrubbing the floor with Dutch Cleanser wearing a full length velvet dressing gown.  This helps me picture Liz scrubbing the toilets in her gem studded hostess gowns.

[Miss_Winthrop]

The family also owns some of the farms around the outskirts of town.  Not too far from 'Collinsport' (near Bangor) there are a breed of cattle that are all black with the exception of a large white band running around the middle of the animal (looks like a large white belt of sorts). Someone at work (whose family has a summer home near the ocean) told me that type of cattle were valuable.

Liz had to fork out a bundle to keep Jason quiet and even opened a Swiss bank account for him that he said he had his heart set on having (geesh!).  I hope she got her money back when he 'left' town in a hurry.

In addition to the cannery and fishing fleet, the Collinses had large land holdings.  But as someone said, when Burke Devlin came to town, the family was having financial difficulties.  But, even Burke could never get enough leverage to pull them down.  

I believe Liz sold a very valuable piece of land that made Burke very unhappy.  So..with her selling land holdings to pay off Jason, there must have been some ready cash flow problems.