I seem to recall an episode where Mr. Weasly’s department was having some difficulties with Arabic wizards over the importation of flying carpets. According to the British regulations, carpets are Muggle artifacts which may not therefore be ensorcelled, but that the Arabic wizards considered flying carpets to be as legitimate, or more so, than flying brooms. So there are at least some cultural differences.
What I wonder about is the overall wizard economy. Somewhere in the wizard world, there are either producers of food (i.e., farmers), or wizards who produce a good or service sold to Muggles. I hope we see some indication of this in the upcoming books.
Technology itself is not always affected by the presence of high magic, though the possibility of energy flows. The most commonly accepted answer is that magic, in large quantities, interferes with normal entropic effects. That is, it likes to reverse the flow of energy. However, most areas (even such esteemed places as Hogwarts Academy) do not posess suficient mana in the general vicinity. Witness the use of trains as transportation, albeit old trains.
Save that the wand would be a polished stick. While slightly unusual, this things wouldn’t be worthy of a second glance.
Note that most of their class time recorded is actually dealing with various Lores of various evil or dangerous creatures and how to deal with them, rather than on how to avoid their innate magic attacks. Please do not fall into the trap of taking the name of a thing for its essence.
There does appear to be something of the sort. Wizards do not have a welfare state in any way, not having much in the way of tax revenue, either. However, the economics of the wizard world are ludcrously out of date. see below, on Wizard Economics.
Sad to say, I have been unable to relocate this quote. (Give me a break, there are like 800 pages of text! Plus I no longer have my family copies with me.)
Wizard Economics
In the ganduaroo over magic itself, there is a strong urge to avoid mention of social sciences. However, even the dismal science is not irrelevant. The subject of Wizard economics can be well understood without difficulty with some modified Western economic theory.
The key word when examining British Wizardly economics is inefficiency. Having been left behind of their own accord some centuries back, wizards have been left out of every economic advantage and technique developed over that period. Thus, they retain a craftsmen economy, though their small numbers appear to have prevented them from attaining a true feudal state. [Flamell, 1962]
The consequences of this, and their continuing seperation, is a permanent labor shortage. In fact, to fill this hole, they have been forced to import labor in the form of goblins, familiars, and house-elf servants. To a modern mind, this reliance on cheap import labor may at first seem similar to sitation of America over its relatively short history. However, this British labor shortage is different because it is artifically generated and maintained.
They insist on having expensive schooling and training for many positions. Where in the ‘normal’ world, we’d have high schoolers manning the stacks at the local bookstore, they have graduates of academies and home-school grads. In other words, they have an artificial labor shortage, such that anyone who needs a job can probably get one. Likewise, demi-humans must fill many positions they otherwise would not be neeed for. Even the familiar-wizard bond is often reduced to a courrier job, as a result of their being no other postal service ready.
Another key component is their reliance on specie. This is not so bad as the old ‘gold standard’ of the West, in that their is a distinct lack of outside dealing in gold or false minting. Transmutation of elements being nearly impossible, this route of cheating the system unlikely. however, it also creates problems. Gold is not unlimited, and magicians burn through an awful lot of it. So long as it kept inside the secret society, that is not such an issue. However, when demand itself or supply of a good changes, the long-range economic effects have been devastating. [Malfoy, 76]
An additional problem in the need for specie, as their population has grown larger, has resulted in some attempted large-scale purchases from outside sources. However, the wizards not having anything to deal with, and being unable to adequately steal supplies, this avenue of escape has closed over the years. Magical goods are not in demand outside their own world, and wizards woul be unwilling to supply them, anyway.
Added to this is slow, but steady release of specie back ito ‘normal society’, form which it deos not return. This caches are generally part of inheritances given to non-magical relatives upon the death of an elderly wizard. These coins are usually hoarded as part of a personal collection of rare coins (they apparently pass for rare 1560 gold sovereigns, possibly due to a large-area spell) or sold to mundane dealers. The result is a an inflationary economy, which leaves poorer families in the lurch. Inevitably, there will be a crunch, and some other means of legal tender will become available.
An analysis of the wizardly currency system has recently yeilded surpising results. namely, that British wizards are among the few that retain the specie use. American and Australian and French wizards, as well as parts of Germany and Scandinavia do as well. This changes the estimated amount of specie available in the wizard world, most of which is in copper and silver coinage, nto gold, anyway. The result is a nearly a quarter of the mundane world’s known supply of gold. Exactly how they got their hands on so much remains a mystery. It may be due, however, to a few large dragon-hoards of old. Unfortunately, there is simply no evidence to answer this question. There are not enough records about the origins of the gold. However, there are a few oblique references of a “Lonely Mountain”, from which a terrible Fire-Drake stole horad from the Dwarves of Eld [sic] (Old?). This may refer to a volcanic island, as mountains themselves rarely appear singly.
The tax system of the wizards mirrors the modern income tax, but is usually derived from the employer directly. The development of such systems is likely due to the influence of the “Domesday Book” of old England. Wizard families were still included in it .(entries of which have been noted in the rare “magical” edition, available only from Synchrounous Press, London) Presumably, this development has been due to parrallel development or possible “leaks” into magical society. Certainly the first modern income tax was establed in the wizarding world only 15 years after its mundane counterpart.
As a side note, every year a representative of the Ministry of Magic ritually offers the reigning Monarch a handful of gold coins, which are ritually returned. Could their have been a formal tribute program in place at one time, from which the wizards derived official neglect in exchange for raw currency? Unfortunately, there is simply no evidence availabel in the official records, nor has any known refence but the most oblique referred to the event.
References:
Flamell, Nicholas: “things I have sein [sic]; a histry [sic] of changes in time and money”. Reference page 1962. Written 1932.
Malfoy, Reget de: “The Joy of Wealth in Hand”. Reference page 72. Written 1911.
Other references are made to centuries-old texts found in the London British Museum Archives. Please contact MagiHist International for guidance in locating them. There is no ordered system of organization for them, and most have long lost their bindings, covers and titles, being the mere remnants; a few loose pages.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding your use of the term “inflationary economy,” but the loss of substantial amounts of specie without a corresponding increase in issues of paper currency should create a DEFLATIONARY economy - less money, but equal or greater amounts of goods and economic activity represented by the money supply. Perhaps you’re reversing your terms; “inflationary economy” customarily refers to an economy experiencing inflation. What you are describing is deflation - the reduction of money supply relative to goods, and hence a reduction in nominal prices.
In fact, this is precisely what has occurred, at least according to limited evidence:
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX - UNITED KINGDOM (MAGICAL ECONOMY)
As Per 1980 = 1.00
(Baseline: 1980 Galleons/Standard Magical Economy CPI Bundle)
1960: 1.251
1965: 1.197
1970: 1.142
1975: 1.061
1980: 1.000
1985: 0.986
1990: 0.972
1995: 0.957
Note that the rate of deflation (e.g. the second derivative) has actually flattened since most mundane economies abandoned all forms of the gold standard, suggesting that the reduction in demand for gold specie in mundane economies has slowed the outflow of gold from the wizarding world.
Clearly, however, you are correct in that this has substantial negative implications for the lower wizarding classes. Deflation discourages capital investment and borrowing and has a braking effect on consumer spending. It is often theorized that the negative effects of deflation are largely due to ridigity; if so, the wizarding world is probably less equipped to deal with deflation than the mundane world, since the wizarding world does not seem to have much in the way of planned monetary policy.
Indeed, the wizarding world is SO lacking in a monetary plan that one wonders if full scale depression is not imminent. The Ministry of Magic and its overseas equivalents appear to concentrate almost entirely on the control of magic and magical items and the capture and incarceration of violent criminals. There appears to be little or no attention paid to matters of economic concern. This combined with the magical world’s insistence on clinging to specie money, does not bode well for the economic future of wizards.
What solutions could the Ministry of Magic implement? Assuming they have the mandate to do so, I would suggest that there are two possible courses of action:
The acquisition of more gold, platinum or other materials appropriate to specie use. This would not solve the problem per se, but a steady influx of new specie could at least prevent deflation for some period of time.
Of course, this is more easily said than done. Alchemy is either magically impossible, or if a method for effective alchemy were discovered, the result could be hyperinflation that would effectively destroy the economy if the secret got out and every wizard was pumping out Galleons. This would have side effects of unprecedented and inconceivable scope - for one thing, it would probably cause a massive influx of Muggle goods into the wizarding world, since the gold produced in a hyperinflationary economy would probably flow outwards to buy less inflated Muggle goods. Gold would consequently deflate in the mundane economy and the wizarding world would be flooded with Muggle “artifacts.”
The transition of the magical economy towards a legal tender system. Does the Ministry of Magic even have the authority to do this? And how would other magical societies react? It might be clearer if we had a sense of how international magical relations function - are the wizards of the world divided into sovereign nation-states? If so, do these nation-states approximate Muggle nation-states?
It is true that the Ministries have no monetary policy, but do not assume that a void so tempting as this has not been filled!
Indeed, magical society has embraced precisely what credulous Muggle populations have feared and speculated about for centuries: a single centralized banking system run by extremely powerful, extremely corrupt, shrewd and wealthy initiates. In yet another example of Ministry incompetance and its inability to curb British wizarding impulses, rumors about Gringott’s have reached Muggle ears: illuminati theory clearly references the great international goblin families.
It is time for magical society to awaken to the danger and throw off the yoke of goblin oppression! Wizards who think that goblins serve them are merely tools of these grasping secretive usurers. It is not enough for them to take their pound of flesh with each transaction, they enslave wizards to their own purposes. How many poor but talented witches and wizards toil for filthy goblin lucre, breaking curses in the hot Egyptian sun, without the protection of even Muggle-level wage and labor laws? How long until the goblins become bold enough to dare claim witches as wives, or more likely indentured whores?
Only by uniting will wizards be able to break the barriers of fear erected by their base and unclean goblin masters. The time to act is now whle world domination still eludes them! Boycott the Wizard Bank!
Great. We can’t even have a scientific discussion around here without some one-trick hippogriff hijacking it into a freaking conspiracy-theory-laden polemic about us-vs-them! How long before we start hearing about Final Solutions?
Well it does seem at the very least that Durmstrang, which even though it does reside in Europe, has a different curriculum. Rumors about a greater emphasis on the Dark Arts leads me to believe Hogwarts isn’t the only cirriculum of magical learning worldwide. I’m sure that if we ever encounter a magical school in, say Havana, in the books it would focus heavily on voodoo.
If American Wizards are anything like their countrymen, I expect they’d be less clannish and standoffish than the British ones. Simply put, a mere century or two ago they could not afford to be, as they would have lacked the huamn and “other intelligent” resources to adequately live apart. Therefore, I expect American wizards would be far more integrated in society.
As a consequence, their children probably listen to N’Sync. On the upside, they can see “Lord of the Rings”. Yes, its true. Those fellows who come out the theater saying, “Its a great movie… but why didn’t Gandalf just Immobulus?” aren’t geeks, they’re really WIZARDS!
As for school curriculum, I expect they would drop a few of what they consider fanciful old-world magic, such as Divination, and concentrate more effort on things such as Arithmancy and Geomancy.
They would also drive very large family-seating brooms, which would be loud and obnoxious.
Look, you can slap the label “conspiracy theory” on observable facts if you want to, but don’t you dare question my commitment to solidarity with those of any human blood whatsoever. Rapproachment with half-giants? It’s about time. Werewolves? Some of my best friends are werewolves. Muggles and Mudbloods? Wonderful, love 'em. Vampires even? Hey, I live for the day when we will openly resume civil relations.
Call me a speciesist if you must, but goblins don’t deserve your liberal sunshine and lemondrops concern. They lure weak-minded wizards into a miserable cylce of bookmaking and loansharking, they seize and torture wizards who dispute their possession of the magical world’s wealth without due process of law, they don’t even pay interest on the knuts deposited by widowed and orphaned witches and wizards! They’re the ones who mint goldpieces as big as hubcaps in Africa and control the ruby authentication business–all so they can take their cut as moneychangers on each international transaction.
Open your eyes–goblins, not vampires, are the true bloodsuckers of the magical world.
As a sidenote, Goblin business practices are very closed, but are considered above legal reproach. In the last decade, there have been several major incidients where Goblins, most notably the Gringotts Financial Concern have been accused of some flash-in-the-pan boom/bust deals designed to fool speculators without actually lieing. Nothing proven, of course, but for our younger readers who may not recall the Gold Galleon fiasco, I thought it might be bets to mention this. Most of these allegations came out in the lat 70’s and early 80’s.
I do not wish to get involved in the inevitable name calling which is about to occur.
However… the vast majority of wizards and such do wish to keep Gringotts as a banking service and financial advisory. Their reputation as an extremely safe provider of security is unmatched - to date, only 3 thefts have occurred.
The theft of 5 gold galleons by a drunken manager (before the invention of inebriation-checking spells) who got lost and opened the wrong vault. (dated 1524 AD)
The theft of at least sixty thousand Galleons (the largest theft ever in Britsh Wizard History) plus and unknown amount of silver coinage in 1777. An inside job, this theft was planned by a small group of Ravenclaw and Slytherin graduate students, tired of academic life. Several Dwarves and Goblins joined the robbery. they destroyed the record books to further confuse the goblins. The perpetrators hid out for several years in America, taking advantage of the confusion, and later moved to South America, where they were welcomed by the British-hostile Spanish wizardry. they returned after the Statue of Limitations took their names off of her Official Criminals List.
On a side note, as a direct result of this theft, modern magical safety systems and techniques were discovered and applied. More over, Gringotts has kept up with new research into the field.
The non-Theft from a vault by Dark Wizards or Witches unknown. Rumors point to Prof. Quirrell, Hogwarts, but officially the matter remains “unclosed”.
Just two points about some of the posts above to continue the discussion. (sorry about not quoting, but I have to leave my computer soon):
There is such thing as a class in the curriculum at Hogwarts entitled “Defense against the Black Arts”, which leads us to the conclusion that it is possible for a Wizard to defend himself against another Wizard’s spell. Otherwise, why have the class?
Since Wizards seem to have retired from muggle society around the middle ages, there would be no American wizards at all, except for Native American - Indian Wizards. Besides, European Wizards would have had no incentive to migrate.
Its “Dark Arts,” and I believe I responded to that already.
Technically, the first mundane colonists had no real incentive either. Since we know nothing of this period, your assertion seems a bit premature. People move for all kinds of reasons, and I can think of hundreds about why people (particularly the poor in search of cheaper property and a less stratified society) might emigrate.
And since their might be no more than 5-10 Native American Wizards (if indeed they ever existed apart from the rest of society) left, I’m sure some have moved in.
Funny Idear: Angry War Chieftain
“OK my brave warriors, we go to fight the Great Cheif in Washington’s soldiers. If we loose we get kicked off to some craphole out West. But don’t worry, the Shaman here has powerful medicine to protect you from theri bullets. Get you rifles and your horses and we ride.”
They ride off.
Child looking up at the Shaman.
“Grandfather, do you think you should have told them you can only protect five at a time and it only works once each?”
I still insist that it is possible to block spells. At the first meeting of the dueling club Snape suggests that they teach teh students how to block hostile spells before they begin sparring.
Avadra Kedavra is said to be unblockable on several occasions, (and it isn’t, but the counter-curse necessitates that the defending wizard sacrificie him or herself), implying that other spells can be countered or blocked.
Potter is able to suspend and push back Voldemort’s spell when he is assualted.
A wizard under attack need not simply grin and bear it. This may be an advanced skill, relative to elemenatry charms and curses, and thus not often used by our pubescent protagonists.
You misunderstand me. It is possible to block spells. I have ot denied that. However, there is no “spell armor”. You have to concentrate and cast a counter-spell. I mean their is no equivelant of Kevlar or Full Plate in magic. This has advantages and disadvantages. On the upside, it means that a third pary (instead of the attacker or target) can block the spell (witness Snape’s counter-curse to Quirrell. On the downside, it means that a sneaky stealth assault is going to be easier to be successful. In other words, the advantage is on the attacker, though is can change to the target is he/she/it can block the first atack or three.
Spells are blockable! I’m not a Harry Potter expert, but we have one right here on 608 of The Goblet of Fire:
Clearly there are ways to block or counter spells.
While I’m commenting upon this I also want to say that many of the posts here don’t jibe with my impression of the world of Harry Potter. I’ve just recently finished reading the books up to The Order of the Phoenix for the first time and I think I get the books pretty well. I’m sure I don’t remember everything correctly, but it is still fresh in my mind.
Wizards can do magic without a wand or other device. As has been mentioned above, Harry makes the glass disappear in the zoo (several other incidents are alluded to in the book). I’m not sure why wizards don’t often do magic without their wands, but it may be the lack of control or perhaps it’s the pubescent theory mentioned above.
Genetics may or may not play a role in whether one can do magic or not. Here I’m going by my own instinct rather than anything directly from the books. I feel like if magic already exists then it might be a force not explained by science and might then interact with reality in strange ways. This is just speculation, but I could imagine the genetic mechanism of magic inheritance as something different from regular genetics.
I realize that once you start on this path you can explain nearly anything by saying “it’s magic, that’s why”, but it seems reasonable to me that there might be some things that are markedly different in a magic world.
I must take issue with the contention that wands function as amplifiers. It is clear from canonical sources that powerful magic can be worked without such devices. Notably, apparation–formidable magic indeed–is apparently normally performed without the use of a wand. Other documented wandless magic includes alterations to the size and composition of objects and a form of healing/restorative magic. It is even possible to produce powerful effects without a wand that cannot be duplicated with one. [Potter, L. 144]
I concur with my esteemed colleague RickJay; wands are used to direct and control magical energies rather than to enhance them. Documented cases suggest that primal (wandless) magic tends to produce a limited variety of effects, most of which are defensive in nature. The utility of primal apparation and levitation in escaping predators is obvious, as are the benefits of shrinking an attacker. [Flamel, 1424] Increasing the resiliency and regenerative capabilities of the body are also clear survival advantages.
Spontaneous displays of primal magic are almost invariably triggered by strong emotion, usually fear or anger; it is possible that the changes in neural chemistry that accompany fight-or-flight conditions facilitate the channeling of magical energies through the body. [Potter, L. 142] Such conditions are not conducive to the production of controlled magical effects, however. The earliest “wands” may have actually been small talismans carved with the image of a safe location, designed to provide mental focus for apparation. [Ollivander, 128] As the talismans became more common, improvements (e.g. the addition of other images to focus the mind on levitation or healing) would have been made, eventually leading to the inclusion of relevant magical materials, such as phoenix feathers for healing or flight.
The inclusion of magical materials in the talismans shifted the focus of the magic; rather than simple tools for the mind, the talismans became channels for magic in themselves. Magically gifted individuals with a talent for flight would naturally find an affinity with phoenix talismans, for example, which in turn directed energy channeled into them toward flight, perhaps allowing a primitive magician to “charge” a talisman with magic to make another person fly. [Potter, J. 83] It is a small step from there to using a talisman to direct the magical energy at an outside target, which calls for a talisman that can be easily aimed–hence, wands.
It is likely that early wand-using wizards created multiple wands, each designed to transmit a particular effect. This practice would have been discontinued when advances in the wand-making arts rendered the affinity between the wand material and the type of magical energy used less important than the affinity between the material and the magician–although certain materials remain better suited to particular types of magic. [Ollivander, 903] These refinements also cleared the way to increasing the scope of magical effects produced with wands; clever manipulation of a well-crafted wand could create results not normally produced by primal magic, eventually leading to the rich tapesty of magic available to the modern wizard. It has, however, also created new dangers. A primitive talisman or proto-wand, if damaged, would simply fail to work–or at most, apply its effects to an unintended target. Modern wands become dangerously unpredictable, directing the full force of the magic channeled into them into largely random effects because of the disruption of the carefully designed channels within them. The results range from the comical to the disastrous. [Ollivander, 980]
References:
Potter, Lily: Magic of the Heart. Reference pages 142, 144. Written 1982.
Flamel, Nicholas: On the Origin of Wizards Reference page 1424. Written 1865
Ollivander, Michael: A History of the Wand-Making Art Reference pages 128, 903, 980. Written 1888.
Potter, James: Wizards in Flight. Reference page 83. Written 1981.
Yes, its true. Those fellows who come out the theater saying, “Its a great movie… but why didn’t Gandalf just Immobulus?” aren’t geeks, they’re really WIZARDS!