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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.
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