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+[[!meta title="Notes on the Harry Potter universe"]]
+
+# Wizarding Economy
+
+This is a conversion table between the various forms of wizarding currencies,
+and an approximate conversion table to British pounds-sterling. For most of the
+period of the Harry Potter series (assuming Y0=1980), the US dollar hovered
+around slightly over half the value of the British pound-sterling, giving the
+galleon an approximate value of US $100.00.
+
+[[!table data="""
+  | Knuts | Sickles | Galleons | GBP
+**Knuts** |   | 1/29 | 1/493 | £0.10
+**Sickles** | 29 |   | 1/17 | £2.90
+**Galleons** | 493 | 17 |   | £49.30
+**GBP** | 10 | ~1/3 | ~1/50 |  
+"""]]
+
+A knut is about the value of a piece of candy. A sickle is about the value of a
+small paperback book, a small toy, a nice quill, or a small packet of parchment.
+A galleon is about the value of a new textbook, a professional workman's tool,
+or a day's wage for a basic worker. A meal costs about S4. A night's stay in a
+tavern runs about S7.
+
+Let's say buildings run about one sickle per square foot per month (probably
+half the cost of renting property in the muggle world) and a reasonable store on
+Diagon Alley leases out at about G88/month, or G1056/year. The Triwizard
+winnings are just about right for Fred and George to open their store (6 month
+lease, and ~G500 for stocking costs and such). Ollivander needs to sell about
+200 wands per year to make rent and a basic living wage.
+
+Here we have a basic income table. I've decided to make the wizarding world
+slightly poorer than the muggle world, based on the apparent relative lack of
+large industry in the former. Muggle values are presented for reference.
+
+[[!table data="""
+  | Muggle| | Wizarding|
+  | **Weekly** | **Yearly** | **Weekly** | **Yearly**
+**Lower** | £350.00 | £18,200.00 | G6 S6 K18 | G332 S4 K8
+**Median** | £500.00 | £26,000.00 | G9 S2 K5 | G474 S10 K28
+**Upper** | £750.00 | £39,000.00 | G13 S11 K22 | G711 S16 K13
+"""]]
+
+Assume disposable income is about half of total income. The Weasleys are poor
+because while Arthur is a department head, it's of a small and poorly-respected
+department. Call his income G10/wk, and as the only wage-earner that leaves
+about G40/yr disposable income per family member. In contrast, let's say the
+Malfoys are pulling in money from landholdings and investments for both adults,
+totaling about G28/wk, leaving more than G242/yr disposable income per family
+member. Draco has better than 6 times the spending power of Ron, not counting
+savings.
+
+Let's call Hogwarts tuition about G40/yr for a student, which gets the Weasleys
+in but just squeaking by and having to purchase everything used.
+
+# Wizarding Population
+
+Ollivander needs to sell about 200 wands per year. Let's say all wizards buy
+exactly one wand, from Ollivander; we'll allow other wandmakers to cancel out
+the sales of extra wands, and overlook income from cleaning kits and holsters as
+a simplification. Hogwarts has incoming classes of about 40 students. So, I'll
+propose 4 other schools in Wizarding Britain; less prestigious than Hogwarts (it
+is, after all, the "best" wizarding school) and consequently not visible in
+canon.
+
+So, a total "class size" for a year is about 200 witches and wizards. Let's call
+median life expectancy around 100 years, and we get a population number of
+20,000 for wizarding Britain. 3,600 of that is underage. Wizards seem to work
+into their old age quite regularly, so let's call retirement age at about 10
+years, removing another 2,000. That leaves a workforce of some 14,400 persons.
+
+If the bureaucratic overhead of wizarding Britain is around 10% of the
+workforce, then the Ministry employs some 1,440 witches and wizards. If you want
+the Ministry to be more inept, you can plausibly stretch this as high as around
+3,600 before the society starts to fall apart.
+
+I'm going to assume about 12.5% of wizarding Britain is pureblood, or 2,500
+witches and wizards. They have disproportionately high representation in the
+government. Essentially all purebloods attend Hogwarts, which is a contribution
+of some 20-25 students per year, more than half the Hogwarts class. Slytherin
+consumes maybe 8 of these leaving 4-6 for each of the other houses.