Harry's Gold

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 130697

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister"
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "finwitch" <finwitch at y...> 
> wrote:
> 
> Finwitch:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > 3)They've made good investments (Harry investing into WWW may have 
> > been one) that turned out to be very profitable.


> Geoff:
> I have visions of that being a good little earner for Harry. But of 
> course, there'a still the tidy sum which was held by Gringotts.
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> It would indeed be interesting to know more about the Potters' 
> inheritance and its source. It seems to have been a fairly 
> substantial bequest. Do we know definitely what careers James and 
> Lily followed? ... they had only been out of Hogwarts about three 
> years, so they would not have accumulated much money of their from 
> work by that time.

bboyminn:

Once again, I'm going to do what I do best - speculate. Although I
really really do try to make logical and reasonable speculations. I
hope I base them on some reasonable model of life and literature, and
futher hope my conclusions come from sound reasoning rather than
flighty impulsive speculation.

In the age the the wizard's society seems to be modeled on, we see two
significant levels of wealth. The first in our modern age, we would
call middle-class; doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, and other
specific-function businessmen. The second would be the upper-class,
people who in a sense don't have a specific profession, but instead
make money off of money; in simple terms, they are investors.

Take Scrooge in 'The Christmas Carol', or Nicholas' Uncle Ralph in
'Nicholas Nicholby' or the Twins in 'Nicholas Nicholby', what was
their occupation? The answer is they were rich; that was their
occuption. For that matter, what is Lucius Malfoy's occupation, again,
the answer is he's rich; that's how he makes money.

In a more practial sense, these people were investors. They invested
in land, either farm or real estate, and made money off of rent and/or
crop shares. Further, they likely invested in business transactions;
in a sense, acting as a short term money lenders. They may have
invested as a partner in what they preceived to be a good long term
successful business venture.

All the while their true objective is to maintain and hopefully
increase the family fortune while maintaining their lavish lifestyle. 

My point, to some extent, is that once James had the family fortune,
he would have been able to work, long term or short term, at whatever
job appealed to him at the moment. Not needing a routine day-to-day
work situation, he had the luxury of dedicating his time to helping
fight Voldemort. I'm sure as a young man, he thought the immediate
problem of Voldemort was more important, and that managing the family
fortune could wait a few years. I also, while I can't prove it, got
the sense that James and Lily lived somewhat modest lifestyles;
confortable but modest. They don't strike me as the type to live in a
large manored estate and ride around in a golden carriage. 

As far as the original Potter family fortune, a reasonable guess is
that it started with land, or some specific working business, and was
built from their on investments. 

As an aside, I wonder if there aren't long term original Potter family
investments in land and/or business partnerships that are still paying
dividends and adding to Harry's bank account?

Regardless, whether you go back one year or one thousand years, this
concept of wealth built on investments has always supported the upper
crust of society.

As a further side note; many have speculated that perhaps the Potter
fortune comes from a direct family link to Bowman Wright of Godrics
Hollow who invented the Snitch. Harry, to this day, could still be
receiving royalties for that invention. As fun an idea as that is, I
think it's a bit of a stretch. But none the less, the Potter fortune
could be founded in some type of invention, and expanded from their by
investments.

Certainly speculation, but do you find it reasonable speculation?

Steve/bboyminn