Where did the money come from?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 90557

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mrsbrooksathome"
<mrsbrooksathome at y...> wrote:
> Here's a question that has always nagged at me: In the first book, 
> Hagrid tells Harry about his vault and all that good stuff, and on 
> numerou occasions throughout the series, Harry having more money 
> than Ron  is an issue.  Where did the money come from?  I know Lily 
> and James supposedly left it for him... But where did they get it?  
> And has anyone ever mentioned what they did for a living?  I know 
> they were in the OOTP, but as I understand it, that is not exactly a 
> paying career? Ideas?

bboy_mn:

In the equivalent age that the Wizard world appears to live in, we can
safely assume that those who already have some money live by the adage
'it takes money to make money'. 

Where the Potter money originally came from we don't know, but once
the Potter's (great grandparents, grandparents, parents, James, who
ever...) had money, they probably perpetuated their wealth by making
investments. 

In a sense, in that apparent day and age, if you had money, you were a
businessman, but not so by anything so mundane and common as the
selling of goods. Instead, by /financing/ the selling of goods, by
being a facilitator of business transaction, by arranging connections
between buyers and sellers, and by lending money.

Since it's unlikely that there is a wizard's stocks and bonds market,
and equally unlikely that wizards invest in the muggle market, the
only remaining market that a wizard can invest in is, as I said, the
facilitation of business transactions for a profit.

If the Potter's were wealthy enough to have landed estates then the
probably generated income from hiring people to manage that land.
Example, much like the current royal family, they let farmers farm
their land, the farmers do all the work, and the land owner takes a
handsome share of the profits. 

If they owned general and/or commercial real estate then they drew
money from the leasing of that property. 

Also, once they had money, they may have invested in substantial, but
minor ownership of an on-going business; trading company, sale of
products or services, etc....

So, based on my viewing of old movies, investing, lending, and
ownership and management of real estate are the method most rich
people used to perpetuate their wealth.

If you are interested in a more detailed explaination, I have a post
from a discussion that occurred in the grubby run down pub down the
street about how Lucius Malfoy makes his money. Given James apparent
wealth, the same information would apply to him.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hogs_Head/message/573

It's mostly an extended version with examples of what I've already
said here.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn