[HPforGrownups] Re: How Malfoys earned money?

[No Limberger]

No: HPFGUIDX 186836

randmath23 wrote:
>I was wondering how the Malfoy family earned their money.
>I cannot find in any of the Harry Potter books that gives any
>indication of what type of job the Malfoys engaged in.

>Miles wrote <SNIP>:
>JKR didn't plan or describe the economical system of the
>Potterverse. She invented a currency (the currency system
>being a parody on the old UK Pound system), she made
>some families rich and others poor, but the rest is
>imagination for us readers.

No.Limberger responds:
Given that wizards and witches can perform magic, the
notion of needing to earn money seems to run counter to
being magical in the first place; unless it has to do with
laws governing the use of magic (limits) and/or how
skillful each wizard & witch's magic is.  First, as far
as restrictions on the use of magic, the WW does it's
utmost to remain hidden from the muggle world.  Thus,
if a wizard or witch wanted a huge chateau on a large
piece of muggle-owned property, magically taking it from
the muggles would, no doubt, raise a lot of suspicions
and potentially threaten the WW.  Since the Black
family has a hidden row-house in London, it stands to
reason that other wizards and witches also live in
major muggle cities, but secretly.  So, there are clearly
limits imposed on the WW for its own protection. This
would mean that there is a finite amount of property
owned (and magically protected) that could be bought
and sold between WW families.

To buy and sell limited property requires some kind
of currency to be used.  The amount of money then in
possession of any WW family defines their financial
status within the WW, but magical skill also plays a
role in this.  Take Lockhart for example.  He is good at
memory charms, which he used to make wizards &
witches who did daring deeds to forget them so that
he could write them, claim credit and become rich and
famous himself as wizards & witches purchased his
books.  Clearly, Lockhart wasn't good at much else
magically, so he used magic to steal in order to obtain
everything else that he wanted, but couldn't do himself.
Then there are various magical items that each have a
specific purpose.  Take Harry's invisibility cloak, which
is a very rare item.  This would suggest that very few have
the ability to magically produce one.  Otherwise, anyone
could make one and it wouldn't be so valuable.

Thus, between variances in magical abilities and limited
property availability, a WW economy is established.
How, specifically, the Malfoys earned money I don't
know, but given their predilection for dark magic, it
may have been earned in various unscrupulous ways
over the centuries in what would essentially be a WW
black market. Of course, they'd also need to appear
legitimate in some way to avoid raising suspicions
within the WW as to how they earned their money,
which suggests the possibility of WW money laundering.

It's a very interesting topic regardless.

-- 
"Why don't you dance with me, I'm not no limberger!"


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