[HPforGrownups] Goblins

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 60749

Felinia wrote:
> Muggles.  From the sounds of things, probably a fair number of wizards and
> witches live in London proper, where they will blend in with the other
> "freaks" ;-) - not an uncommon assumption in a large, busy metropolitan
area
> full of strange trends - and they all make their way to Diagon Alley as
> students might go to the Quartier Latin in Paris and "hang out" and have a
> cuppa, or a pint, and do their serious shopping and their window shopping
> there.  Since Hogsmeade is the only entirely wizarding village in Britain,
> this suggests to me that other wizarding families are dotted about the
> island - my thought is that perhaps some have taken on a sort of cover, as

The other thing that makes Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade special is that they
cater for the students - the one for their pre-school purchases, the other
for their termtime ones. There couldn't really be any question of barter in
that context!

> I agree - it's most logical that there is some form of simple interest on
> the money.  There could be an "interest spell" as you suggest - that's
> pretty cool.  Or the goblins could lend and invest, as has long been a
> standard economic practice in most societies.  It's not clear if they
*need*
> to - as you state below about credit, the economic rules are not really
that
> clear to our eye - if you could just manufacture whatever you need
whenever

Though there are other questions about finance (for example, where does
Hogwarts get its money, how do the Malfoys maintain their standard of
living, and so on) which could be resolved neatly if they have sufficient
money in Gringotts to be able to manage from the interest. After all, even
with magical methods, Hogwarts would have a considerable bill for salaries,
supplies, food, and so on. Likewise, although we think of the Malfoys and
their like as having certain things in common with the 19th century English
aristocracy, the latter got their income through renting land to farmers -
possibly not so feasible in the WW.

Cheers

Ffred

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