LOL! No one is richer than the Malfoys! At least accrding to Draco. But you may want to check out pharnabazus's essay on this. He is of the opinion that Lucius isn't as rich as he pretends to be.... no idea what is true, either way.
Btw, have you checked out msmanna's original fic (The Administration) already? I was wondering what you thought about it?
hmm. It's totally unspecified by the books, but I would suspect that Harry might not have the same assets as the Malfoys, but has a lot more liquidity - all his money is, um, money. The Malfoys have (presumably) mouldering estates that they have to keep up, Dark Lords to support, tenants to bleed dry, that sort of thing.
On the other hand, it kind of doesn't make sense that all of Harry's money is in galleons in a gringott's vault - I mean, where are his paternal grandparents? Didn't they have assets? A house, etc? Were they killed as well? Yeah, no mention. But it seems like James Potter is comfortably well-off and Harry probably certainly doesn't have to worry about money. I tend to think that he might not be able to live entirely off his assets, whereas Draco could [by living at the Malfoy physical plant, exploiting house elves for free labor, and probably having debts. ]You could write it any way you wanted, though, because it's not sketched out in the books. Harry's money is a ..hm, place-holder, a trope, a "Oh, he used to have no money and now he has plenty, yay for penniless orphans!" kind of thing. It represents freedom from having to rely on the Dursleys, not money the way you or I would think of it, as in "can I quit my job and move to a tropical island? no? okay, then."
For someone who professes indifference to canon you are surprisingly up on it!!
But thank you, this is *exactly* what I wanted to hear. Mainly the section about 'write it any way you want because JKR didn't really think it through and just put it there so that Harry could buy himself some new robes'.
I think, actually, that it's not a lot. Harry is eleven when he first sees it and we are told it's a lot but what does an eleven-year-old know? My son is ten and thinks fifteen pounds is a fortune. And then Hagrid tells Harry he's rich but what would Hagrid know? He's not on a huge salary himself and probably thinks that any sort of savings is a lot.
Hm. For someone who professes indifference to canon, I seem to have a lot of opinions about it...
Harry is eleven when he first sees it and we are told it's a lot but what does an eleven-year-old know?
Okay, point, but, on the other hand, Harry's the only living relative of the Potters [er, again, presumably, or he wouldn't have had to go to the awful Dursleys] and they, I believe, are canonically well-off. Now, James and Lily were very young when they died, and thus had probably little money, but the family seems to have been comfortable, and there's nowhere for that money to go but to Harry.
But, right. Fantastically wealthy, I think not. Enough to give him a little more freedom than, say, Ron, whom, I get the feeling, will barely be supported financially for his last few years at school - yes. But I'd say his prospects are similar to Hermione's, in that I see her parents supporting her at least in part if she were to go to [the equivalent of] graduate school, helping her with rent when she first leaves school, that sort of thing.
Now, a question: why the fuck doesn't Ron have a summer job? Now THERE's a hooker story, my friend. mm.
That just leads me to my next question: exactly how rich were the Potters? Richer than the Malfoys? the Blacks? And how rich were the Evanses? They can't have been that phenomenally rich because why is Petunia living at Privet Drive??
'Comfortable': okay. But comfortable isn't filthy wealthy.
isn't harry's vault, liek, FULL of gold? so even an eleven year old's perception doesn't come into play here. unless of course wizard currency is like hong kong dollars; costing you ten dollars to buy a coke.
i too want/need to know how much money harry has, if only to know how much his property on the docks would be worth.
i realise i am not helping you a tiny little bit. i am procrastinating.
er. this property, here. that my harry lives in. the weirdest thing is that i wrote a desciption of what i wanted it to be, and where, and THEN went looking for a property, and the two are so similar it's spoooky.
Actually, we do. 1 galleon = 5 pounds or 7.13 US Dollars.
So, if a "vault full of gold" is, say, 50,000 galleons (which wouldn't be unreasonable considering that they're small enough for 1000 to fit in a bag Harry can physically pick up (though the bag was obviously charmed to weigh) then it'd be over 355,000 US dollars.
In my opinion, the vault is full of much more than that, considering Rowling has stated the Potters are "very well-off" and James's money is inherited. So, yes, I wouldn't be surprised if Harry was as rich as the Malfoys. And he's almost bound to have property in his name he merely doesn't know about.
Well, for what it's worth, CNN Money has a currency converter here (http://cgi.money.cnn.com/apps/hpcurrconv), based on the WW prices given on the backs of the accessory HP volumes by Scholastic. (The Harry Potter Lexicon has another one here (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/galleons.html), based on a JKR interview, which does not agree with the CNN version.) Going with the smaller estimate (at CNN), one Galleon equals roughly $4.82 US. Which would be, um...about 2.63 UK Pounds, 3.91 Euros, or 522.20 yen. Oh, and per the books, one Galleon = 17 Sickles = 493 Knuts (29 Knuts to a Sickle.)
In other words, a Galleon is worth, at a minimum, not quite five bucks. Which still doesn't tell us just how many of them Harry's vault contains, but if there are really heaps and heaps in there, then he's considerably well-off. We also don't know whether Gringott's pays interest...
Yeah I think so too. I think the Potter's money had accumulated over 2/3 generations, not like the Malfoys who seemed to have had a noble family spanning back centuries.
Potters could have accumulated over 10, they'd still be 'new money' to the Malfoys - who probably keep marrying 'new money' but are actually skint in the male lineage :)
I was referring to the practice in parts of the UK aristocracy of being totally hypocritical about New Money, then marrying it every couple of generations - I think Hagrid and Ron talk about it in the first two books, that there isn't a wizard or witch that isn't halfblood or less.
I thought the Blacks were the sort of people the Malfoys marry! I thought the Blacks were very old family (as are the Longbottoms) and that the Potters were nouveaux.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 01:17 pm (UTC)Btw, have you checked out
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 05:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 03:30 pm (UTC)On the other hand, it kind of doesn't make sense that all of Harry's money is in galleons in a gringott's vault - I mean, where are his paternal grandparents? Didn't they have assets? A house, etc? Were they killed as well? Yeah, no mention. But it seems like James Potter is comfortably well-off and Harry probably certainly doesn't have to worry about money. I tend to think that he might not be able to live entirely off his assets, whereas Draco could [by living at the Malfoy physical plant, exploiting house elves for free labor, and probably having debts. ]You could write it any way you wanted, though, because it's not sketched out in the books. Harry's money is a ..hm, place-holder, a trope, a "Oh, he used to have no money and now he has plenty, yay for penniless orphans!" kind of thing. It represents freedom from having to rely on the Dursleys, not money the way you or I would think of it, as in "can I quit my job and move to a tropical island? no? okay, then."
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 05:45 pm (UTC)For someone who professes indifference to canon you are surprisingly up on it!!
But thank you, this is *exactly* what I wanted to hear. Mainly the section about 'write it any way you want because JKR didn't really think it through and just put it there so that Harry could buy himself some new robes'.
I think, actually, that it's not a lot. Harry is eleven when he first sees it and we are told it's a lot but what does an eleven-year-old know? My son is ten and thinks fifteen pounds is a fortune. And then Hagrid tells Harry he's rich but what would Hagrid know? He's not on a huge salary himself and probably thinks that any sort of savings is a lot.
Hm. For someone who professes indifference to canon, I seem to have a lot of opinions about it...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 07:00 pm (UTC)Okay, point, but, on the other hand, Harry's the only living relative of the Potters [er, again, presumably, or he wouldn't have had to go to the awful Dursleys] and they, I believe, are canonically well-off. Now, James and Lily were very young when they died, and thus had probably little money, but the family seems to have been comfortable, and there's nowhere for that money to go but to Harry.
But, right. Fantastically wealthy, I think not. Enough to give him a little more freedom than, say, Ron, whom, I get the feeling, will barely be supported financially for his last few years at school - yes. But I'd say his prospects are similar to Hermione's, in that I see her parents supporting her at least in part if she were to go to [the equivalent of] graduate school, helping her with rent when she first leaves school, that sort of thing.
Now, a question: why the fuck doesn't Ron have a summer job? Now THERE's a hooker story, my friend. mm.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 11:12 pm (UTC)'Comfortable': okay. But comfortable isn't filthy wealthy.
And Ron as hooker!!!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 03:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 12:24 pm (UTC)I know, it's ridiculous. With that build he's plainly an outside half.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 07:52 pm (UTC)i too want/need to know how much money harry has, if only to know how much his property on the docks would be worth.
i realise i am not helping you a tiny little bit. i am procrastinating.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 11:11 pm (UTC)Exactly. We have no idea what this 'gold' converts to. What is one ingot worth in knuts?
And: what property? What docks?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-03 11:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 12:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 02:58 am (UTC)So, if a "vault full of gold" is, say, 50,000 galleons (which wouldn't be unreasonable considering that they're small enough for 1000 to fit in a bag Harry can physically pick up (though the bag was obviously charmed to weigh) then it'd be over 355,000 US dollars.
In my opinion, the vault is full of much more than that, considering Rowling has stated the Potters are "very well-off" and James's money is inherited. So, yes, I wouldn't be surprised if Harry was as rich as the Malfoys. And he's almost bound to have property in his name he merely doesn't know about.
- Andrea.
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 06:17 am (UTC)Well, for what it's worth, CNN Money has a currency converter here (http://cgi.money.cnn.com/apps/hpcurrconv), based on the WW prices given on the backs of the accessory HP volumes by Scholastic. (The Harry Potter Lexicon has another one here (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/galleons.html), based on a JKR interview, which does not agree with the CNN version.) Going with the smaller estimate (at CNN), one Galleon equals roughly $4.82 US. Which would be, um...about 2.63 UK Pounds, 3.91 Euros, or 522.20 yen. Oh, and per the books, one Galleon = 17 Sickles = 493 Knuts (29 Knuts to a Sickle.)
In other words, a Galleon is worth, at a minimum, not quite five bucks. Which still doesn't tell us just how many of them Harry's vault contains, but if there are really heaps and heaps in there, then he's considerably well-off. We also don't know whether Gringott's pays interest...
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 12:11 am (UTC)Which suggests that the Potters are wealthy indeed. But I would suggest it's New Money.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 11:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 09:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-05 07:42 pm (UTC)It was a generalisation
Date: 2004-07-05 09:23 pm (UTC)Re: It was a generalisation
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-04 10:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-05 10:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-05 11:13 am (UTC)No thanks :)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-05 07:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-05 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-05 07:41 pm (UTC)