Noble does not equal wealth. In fact, there are several instances in history where Kings joined forces with the merchants to gather enough money to develop an army and get more power that the nobles had in their kingdom.

Not to mention you could bankrupt and live out of someone's else money, but you'd still be a noble and that meant you were better than even the most rich people. That would be true to what...16-17 century?

 

You are indeed wrong, the money was a gift intended for the future gift shop. The only stipendium for the money was to buy Ronald Weasly a new set of Dress Robes and say it was from the Twins.

 

Reward money is completely logical,it's been around since roman times anyone remember the thirty pieces of silver. Also the shear fact that Osama has a bounty out on him argues that it's a very real law enforcement tactic. Plus someone already mentioned a bounty on Harry that was about ten thousand galleons which would convert to 100,700 USD based on the lexicon calculator. That definitely proves they are common in the wizarding world.

 

Was it ever confirmed that Gringotts gave out loans or did anything else besides keeping money and vault items safe and managing the vault security?

 

And you base that on one example, good job!

 

What interest? They have 100% reserve banking, they probably charge you to let you keep the money there.

Which is OK because they probably have deflation anyway, if the money supply grows as 'fast' as it looks like.

So I guess the real interest rate could be positive anyway, but that's more of a general enrichment effect than from their own applications especially.

 

You're letting your imagination and fanon run away with you. There's no evidence of either stocks or that the Potters or Blacks owned any sort of property at all. Nor that wizards put much consideration into finances at all.

Nobody ever said anything about the Noble House of Potter.

The Weasleys mentioned that Harry was their 'silent partner' in OotP, I think. But there's never any evidence that they gave him anything besides free merchandise.

There's no requirements in an economy for stock. Interest on loans is not the same thing as interest on deposits.

Also, how many businesses are we actually aware of in canon? There's one main street; Diagon Alley and then whatever exists in Knockturn and Hogsmede.

 

Yes, but the Malfoys value two things: blood and money. The Weasleys are pureblooded, but the Malfoys hate them. For the Malfoys to refer to any 'light' family with respect, they're going to have to have wealth.

My mistake, then.

The problem lies not in whether or not reward money is logical, but whether or not the Ministry would give out it. The Ministry isn't level-headed; the fifth book proves that. And like I said before, why give out reward money when you have awards like the Order of Merlin?

 

In a functioning economy, they are two sides of the same coin. The only reason banks pay interest on deposits is so they can lend that money at higher rates.

This is true even with full reserve banking, only in that case it can only be done with time deposits. There doesn't seem to be anything resembling time deposits in HP, since all the money apparently just sits on a vault collecting dust, which is one of the many reasons why Rowling fails economics forever.

 

It is far more likely that Gringotts charges for people to deposit money into vaults than pay interest on their deposits, they're goblins, not bankers.

 

Okay even I laughed when I saw that, but what I meant was that it showed bounties weren't unheard of. From that we can guess that voldemort had one.

Oh and money lending is essential for economic growth the existence of a wizarding economy we can guess that it exists. Also if they don't collect interest on loans how do goblins make money.

 

They could make money by keeping your money safe. That's not completely unheard of.

 

Which is exactly what I said two posts before the one you quoted.

And they run a bank, so they are bankers.

 

Then why say they're paying interest on deposits? It would be insanely illogical to do both.

They're goblins first, look at Griphook's attitude in DH. Goblins certainly want to hoard as much gold and shit as they possibly can.

 

True but then it would seem more cost effective to just bury your money in some random place and make it unplottable. After all the only way anybody would find it is if you told them.

 

Harry is probably rich, but not wealthy.

He has his money from his parents, some money from Sirius, possible reward money for the first vanquishing, and more possible reward money for Voldemort's true death.

So yeah, he seems pretty well off. In my mind I imagine him to be worth about 1 or 2 million US dollars* or so. I don't know what that is converted to galleons, but it's enough to live comfortably off of.


*pulled from my ass

 

According to the calculator the OP gave the Galleon is worth 10.7 US dollars. Yet she says it is made out of gold.

For a comparison the Roman aureus had 0.2315 troy ounces of gold and was about the size of a US nickel. 0.2315 troy ounces is worth 217.78 US dollars.

If they are worth only 10.7 US dollars they only contain about 0.0114 troy ounces. If they are even half the size of a "hubcap" that shit is so impure I would barely consider it gold.

 

They could base it off demand like in our modern market. And it's also possible that the hubcap coins were foreign currency. Here's an article about it. I think they mentioned the problem your talking about.

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/money.html

 

....

I said they would do that if JKR's world made sense.

 

Was it ever stated that the unplottable charm was common somewhere? The only one that I remember with this effect was Fideliaus(sp?) charm and the only instances of that being used were by wizards and witches who actually looked for the charm.