The Nature of Galleons

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 117955


>         Pardon if I've already made this post, or if we've already 
> beaten it to death.  Since the beginning of the series, I've been 
> questioning the nature of money in the WW.  We are told that the 
> Weasleys are a poor family and the Malfoys are rich.  These socio-
> economic dividers DO exist in the WW, but why?  We've seen NUMEROUS 
> examples of how magic supercedes money.  Below are some (long winded) 
> examples.  I don't have any books with me so I can't reference them 
> but I'll do the best I can. 
> 
>   	The Weasleys are a poor family.  This we can see from the 
> state of their robes, the slapdash engineering of The Burrow, etc.  
> But why are they poor?  Let's look only at the purchasables that 
> fulfill physiological and safety needs...thank you Maslow...(I'll 
> throw that in there so if the principal comes in I can say I'm 
> writing for a scholarly journal! :)  
> 
>         Food-It seems that food isn't all that hard to come by in the 
> WW, even without money.  In fact, at one point "a creamy sauce" comes 
> pouring out of the tip of Mrs. Weasly's wand and into a pot.  
> McGonnagal conjures sandwiches and cookies out of nowhere.  Food just 
> appears all over the place but where is it coming from?  In the Great 
> Hall we know if comes from the kitchens below; however, in these 
> other circumstances are these people actually moving food from one 
> place to another (we've seen no evidence) or is it actually 
> being "conjured from midair"?  If so, why waste the galleons on a 
> joint of mutton when you can conjure the stew?
> 
>         Shelter-The Burrow seems to be held together only by magic.  
> Hogwart's, we've speculated (or been told, I can't remember!), grows 
> with the times, perhaps starting as a much smaller castle.  Why, 
> though, are some living better then others?  Again, it seems that if 
> chairs can be conjured from mid air (and entire Quidditch stadiums? 
> GoF) why not homes?  Or, save that, pieces of homes.  Perhaps 
> transfigure the dirt floor into a lovely parquet floor (though, I 
> can't stand parquet!)
> 
>         Travel- Why is this an issue?  Well, apparation is free, that 
> we know of.  Though we don't know the price, a handful of Floo Powder 
> will seemingly take you anywhere that's hooked up to the Network.  Is 
> this an international Network?  Intercontinental?  If so, that's a 
> lot of travel for the Galleon!  Brooms are expensive, but even a 
> slightly shoddy one will get the job done and once you have it, how 
> much maintenance is involved?  No fuel, no oil, etc.  How about large 
> party travel?  In the RW, that can be rather expensive, planes, 
> trains, buses, etc.  Though, we've not heard of any British Broomways 
> with outrageous round trips, we DO know that the Portkey is a good 
> method of sending many people a long distance.  It also seems that 
> the only fee for Portkey travel is for the object used as the 
> Key...and, really, how many galleons can an old shoe cost?
> 
>         My point is that magic takes the place of MANY of the things 
> we, as unfortunate Muggles, are paying for.  Electricity, gasoline, 
> natural gas, etc.  It's possible that taxes are paid to the MoM, but 
> we don't know.  Food can be created, travel is easy to come by, and 
> even shelter can be made.  No one has a monopoly on magic.  
> Commonwealth Spellison and Ameri-charm aren't charging a sickle a 
> spell (so far as we know...and for all you Brits, that was RIGHT 
> funny! :)  Magic is not a non-renewable resource; it's there in 
> abundance and for the taking.  So many of life's necessities can be 
> created, or had in some way, through magic.  That being the case, why 
> the drastic economic divides?  What are we (or maybe just I) missing 
> about the nature of money in the WW?
> 
> Patrick (who just used his whole planning period to write this 
> post...)

Antosha:

I believe this point has been made, but it seems likely that even magic can't make 
something from nothing. Conjuration--Molly's sauce, Dumbledore's chairs, the 
sandwiches in CoS, etc--are likely simply removed from somewhere else. That being the 
case, it seems likely that there are rather strict rules about what you can appropriate from 
where and how. 

Likewise, Transfiguration seems to work best if the source and target are of similar value 
and size. The greater the difference, the more difficult the magic--Transfiguring metal to 
gold or life to immortality is only possible, for instance, with the Philosopher's Stone, 
which only one wizard has managed to make in the last seven hundred years. Look at what 
the Transfiguration 

Potions, of course, require raw materials, and one can expect that the laws of supply and 
demand would operate here.

Too, most Charms, Potions and Transfigurations don't seem to be permanent. Go ahead 
and change that dirt floor to polished oak, but expect to have to do it over and over--
again, the more drastic the change, the shorter seems to be the duration. 

THerefore, material wealth is  in fact, helpful. To be able to buy and trade the things you 
want with other wizards, you need something that they'll accept; precious metals are 
valuable in their own right--difficult to create, hard to find--and an accepted form of 
currency. Think of the Leprechaun gold....