Malfoy gold

[Brenda M.]

No: HPFGUIDX 106887

>>> Catlady wrote:
I feel certain that Lucius Malfoy inherited his wealth, and he doesn't
> have to do any work except to manage his money. I fantasize that the
> ancestors of the Malfoys were already sitting pretty when the Romans
> came to Britain, but continued to increase their fortune since then.
> Early sources would include charging Muggle villages a large annual
> tax not to destroy them, conquering other wizards and confiscating
> their property, selling spells to rich Muggles, finding desposits of
> metal ore and other valuables and mining and processing them with
> slave or House Elf labor or by spells. 
> 
Medieval sources would include owning large amounts of land and either
farming it by slave or sharecropper labor and selling the produce, or
> renting it to non-slave farmers, and selling exotic foreign luxury
> goods (e.g. spices, silk, Oriental carpets) that could be imported
> much more easily by magic than by Muggle means. Modern sources would
> include being a venture capitalist or loan shark. 
> 
> I can easily imagine that Lucius Malfoy owned a broomstick company
(owned it, not managed it) and offered to his competitors to buy them
out at a ridiculously low price, and when they refused, somehow their
> factory, family home, and family members were all laid to waste with
> the Dark Mark glowing over the ruins... 
> 
The broomstick factory, incidentally, could employ a number of parents
> of Hogwarts students, such the careful, hardworking Hufflepuff who
> individually hand-ties and charms each twig, and the obsessed
> Ravenclaw who invents the improved versions of the charms, and the
> inventory manager who notes how fast the wood, twigs, feathers,
string, polish, sandpaper, and all are being used, and orders more in
> time that the store room won't run out.
> 
Some of those early sources of wizarding wealth would account for the
> hostility of Muggles toward wizarding folk, such as Binns mentioned
during the Founding of Hogwarts: "it was an age when magic was feared
by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution." 
<<<


Brenda now:

Hmm, haven't thought about it that way before, but I like your theory 
very much. Even now (with all the Muggle-protection laws and such) 
wizards don't seem to have deep understanding/liking for Muggles, I 
can only imagine what they did back in the days.

But I can't see Malfoy owning the broomstick company, though I know 
you only suggested it as one of possibilities. Does this mean Malfoy 
would have had collaboration/ business relation with the creator of 
the Golden Snitch, the resident of Godric's Hallow? That I can't see 
happening...

Or what if they were engaged in illegal activities, like organized 
crime Mafia Molfoy family that manufactured illegal potion 
ingredients and Dark magical items... [of couse no canon to support 
this whatsoever, that I can think of... except for that Secret 
Chamber of Malfoy's]

Brenda