So, is the whole 'you can't transfigure things into the noble metals (silver, gold)' fanon? I see that used a lot, but I can't find where it's stated in canon.

 

It's at least partly canon--the Philosopher's Stone would have been irrelevant if you could just transfigure stuff into gold. Also, the existence of currency exchange from Muggle to Magical worlds would preclude it (transfigure a stack of silver ingots, sell them in the Muggle world, exchange pounds for Galleons in the magical world, profit!)

 

You'd still have the elixir of life though, right?

And if your a fairly unscrupulous muggleborn: transfigure dirt into plutonium, sell to rogue government, profit!

Obviously a few steps missing in there.

 

Transfigure dirt into the right kind of uranium, cast reducio. Nuclear bomb!

Magic is broken in all kinds of ways when it comes to interactions with Muggles. I mean, even if you knock out gold and silver, there are still all sorts of valuable things you can create with magic and sell to Muggles. And it seems that Voldemort, at least, can create silver.

I think eventually you just have to say there are laws against that sort of thing. I once conceived of a Ministry which funded itself not through taxation but through fucking around with Muggles in exactly the way Pers describes, and passed laws that said that only they could do it.

 

Law enforcement prevents it? I know the Aurors etc don't have a particularly good reputation in canon, but I'm happy to assume that if they come across someone pulling a stunt like that, they're going to come down on you like a ton of bricks.

Factor in the significant portion of the Wizarding population who wouldn't want to associate with Muggles at all (many of who seem to be loaded anyway), and then the portion who would see it as morally wrong or simply wouldn't have that devious turn of mind anyway, and I think that covers most of the angles.

Edit: ninja-edit was particularly stealthy.

 

Yeah, we all know that making things illegal stops people from doing them. Like Voldemort.

 

Voldemort is an exception, but there are way too many non-evil wizards who would, when they want to buy a new broom, make and sell a few ounces of platinum or a few carats of diamonds. After all, it's easy and doesn't hurt anyone. It's like, if you're a celebrity, you can sign a napkin instead of paying because the napkin is worth more on ebay than whatever is on the bill, unless you're buying a car.

Wizarding LEOs would not be able to prevent this because they can't follow everyone and listen in on everyone's conversations (including blind drops, intermediaries, etc). The muggles pay money for a real product which is indistinguishable from that of purely muggle origin. As soon as the wizard converts pounds to gold bars, there is no evidence of the transaction in either world. So every wizard worth his wand would be doing it occasionally and the impact on the wizarding economy would be huge - as long as there are few wizards and many muggles, many wizards would effectively have a blank cheque. The wizarding government would be relegated to keeping track of someone doing this too much, to prevent flooding the market and hurting everyone. Also, inflation.

The Watsonian explanation for why this doesn't happen is either:

1. Who says it doesn't happen? Maybe the Weasleys are the exception and everyone else is doing it.

2. Although magic can do almost anything, wizards can do almost nothing. There are only a dozen magicals who can do useful high level transfiguration. The rest are shop assistants who can use magic only to restock shelves.

 

When Harry saves Pettigrew's life in PoA. I think they're mentioned when Arthur Weasley gets bitten by Nagini in OotP, and finally when Pettigrew's hand strangles him to death after Harry tries to call on the life debt.

EDIT: Oops, seems I've missed a page or two.

 

I said

We agree that this doesn't happen in canon, at least not on a large scale. The question is why? We know the true Doylist explanation. We may be looking for a Watsonian explanation. I suggested that wizards suck. You suggested that wizards suck and are stupid. Since these reasons have nothing to do with what is possible, this is a market ripe for disruption. Therefore, it is possible that the first person who is both aware of magic and understands economics 101 is going to radically change the wizarding world. Is there a Watsonian reason why this hasn't happened before 1997? I think it would be awesome if the answer is "no".

There is historical precedent, though for a less obvious idea: how many centuries passed between the time all the technology needed to build a Montgolfier balloon was commonly available and the time the first one was built?

 

With respect to Pettigrew's hand killing him: this was only caused by the life debt in part.

The fact that Harry had saved Pettigrew made him hesitate, and it was the hesitation that killed him. The hand, created by Voldemort, detected his lack of loyalty and killed him for it.

Or at least, that's JKR's explanation of that scene.

With regards to people obeying the law: we really have no idea about what measures the Ministry has available to them to help them track, monitor and capture wizards. Certainly they seem to be pretty successful in catching criminals in times of peace, judging by the fact that Azkaban is hardly empty. The Ministry seems to have access to powerful and unique magic like the Taboo (maybe they have some very difficult to create or even one of a kind magical objects to help them, or maybe it's a function of their manpower, or maybe there's a lot of hidden magical infrastructure over the country).

 

Pettigrew's hand could merely be silver in color, not composition. As I understand it, there's no canon proof that Voldemort could conjure or transfigure precious metals. Perhaps all attempts to do so without the Philosopher's Stone end up with, in effect, Leprechaun gold. This would explain why gold, silver, and the like could remain currency in the magical economy.

Wizards could conceivably day-trade with a Time Turner* (and giving such a device to a precocious Muggleborn witch in PoA was just asking for trouble). Magical ethics discussions regarding economics, contact with the Muggle world, and arbitrage would have to address the impact of time travel on markets.

* I wrote a story once where Seer!Harry became a day trader.

 

I'm not saying there's no-one who does it, simply that it is illegal to do so. Quite apart from the effect it would have on the economy, all it takes is one wizard screwing something up somewhere along the line and you're looking at a serious breach of the Statute of Secrecy, a crime serious enough to get your wand snapped (possibly; I accept that this is based largely on Fudge trying to get rid of Harry, so may not be widely used).

 

You don't have to that in England tough. You can simply go to another country which doesn't real law enforcements transfigure coal into diamonds then sell that to smugglers or other lowlife there than come back to England with the money.

Off the record easy money which even Ministry of Magic can't track.

 

I think there's a fair amount of international cooperation between magical governments. Remember the start of HBP, where the British Ministry was able to rearrange, on the spur of the moment, a direct interference with the Muggle government of another country (we will arrange for the President to forget to call you). Either the British Ministry has global reach, or there's cooperation between magical governments.

 

Does Rowling ever indicate why the Ministry of Magic is a ministry rather than a fully fledged government of its own?

 

No. Personally, I find the proximity of the creation of the Ministry (we don't have an exact date, but we know the Warlock's Council was still around in the late 1500s, and the Ministry was around by the late 1600s) to both the International Statute of Secrecy and the English Civil War/Glorious Revolution to be interesting.

 

While I think it's possible for someone to transfigure something into silver, diamonds or other fancy jewels, it is out of the range of most wizards.

They would need to have exceptional transfiguration skills to be able to produce something of fine enough grade to sell. We don't even know if transfiguration is permanent, and if not, how long it would last. You can't have your product transforming in the middle of the deal.

We also know that silver and other metals are used in potions, so it might be better to sell them to the Wizard community. I doubt the potions would work if it was magically transformed, though.

Also, we do not know the exchange rate from Muggle money to Galleons. It might not be worth it if Galleons are worth ten times (or more) than Pounds. If that was the case, Wizards would need to move tons of metals (tons of it) to make a decent profit. That would cause a huge trail leading back to the makers as well. I bet there is a department in the Ministry that tracks things like that.

Plus, they would have to deal with muggles, which would be almost an instant turn off.

 

I actually looked into the issue of the value of gold for Alexandra Potter.

At 1991 prices in the Muggle world, if 1 galleon even contains just 1/4 an ounce of gold, it would be worth £160. Whatever the exact exchange rate, it's certainly not that high. It appears to be closer to one galleon to five pounds.

 

I was in the mindset that gold could not be created by magical means, thus the Philosophers Stone is so valuable for many reasons.

That is why I was looking at lesser metals such as Silver, Bronze, etc.

Either way, I figure creating these metals or fancy jewels would require expert knowledge. It would be similar to real life. Anyone could learn Chemistry but only a few reach the levels and get the necessary equipment to make gems in a lab, and they are just not as good as what is in real life.

Anyways, why put in all that hard work to make all these gems or metals when you could make a simple healing potion and sell it for ridiculously high rates to the rich?

Now, we know why the super rich and elite never get sick.