Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter
Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing the distribution of wealth in the
wizarding world. We first get a glimpse of
how wizarding currency works in the Philosopher’s
Stone when Harry visits his vault at Gringotts
Bank.
Hagrid brings him to vault 687 and Harry is
suddenly faced with an enormous pile of gold
- all his. Harry had all of this money because
it was left to him by his parents. The Potter
family lineage made their money in the potions
business-starting with the founding patriarch
of the family, Linfred of Stinchcombe, who
was a potion pioneer.
Gringotts bank is overlooked by Goblins- and
they help to control legislation surrounding
currency. Wizarding currency consists of Galleons,
Sickles and Knuts, with Galleons being worth
the most, and Knuts being worth the least.
Wealth isn’t mentioned or alluded to much
in Harry Potter, outside of instances which
involve either the Weasleys or the Malfoys.
The Weasleys are known to be exceedingly poor,
and inversely, the Malfoys are exceedingly
wealthy. In almost every exchange between
a Weasley and a Malfoy, wealth is mentioned
condescendingly in some capacity.
When Draco firsts meets Ron, he says the following:
“Think my name's funny, do you? Well, no
need to ask yours. Red hair, and a hand-me-down-robe?
You must be a Weasley.”
And we later see Lucius make a similar sort
of remark:
“Let’s see..Red hair... vacant expressions...
tatty second hand book... you must be the
Weasleys.”
This suggests that there’s certainly a ‘class’
system prevalent inside of the wizarding world,
and that the distribution of wealth, like
our own world, is not necessarily as even
as it should be. So, this begs the question?
WHO is the WEALTHIEST? At first glance, it
really seems like the answer may be the Malfoy
family, as their wealth is mentioned time
after time.
At the beginning of the Deathly Hallows, the
Malfoy mansion hosts the Death Eaters meeting,
chaired by Lord Voldemort. When Yaxley and
Snape approach the Manson, Yaxley snarls and
notes that there are peacocks on the grounds.
He murmurs - with an edge of jealousy - that
Lucius Malfoy always "did well." Their grand
estate, expensive pets roaming the property,
and mentions of wealth throughout the books
and films - really seem to support the argument
that they’re the wealthiest. The Malfoys
are pure-bloods with extensive wealth in their
lineage, AND Lucius holds a high position
in the ministry. However, I have reason to
believe that they are only the second most
wealthy family. So, who has the largest vault
at Gringott’s?
"Make him press his hand to the door!" Griphook
urged Harry,who turned his wand again upon
Bogrod.
The old goblin obeyed, pressing his palm to
the wood, and the door of the vault melted
away to reveal a cave-like opening crammed
from floor to ceiling with golden coins and
goblets, silver armour, skins of strange creatures,
some with long spines, others with drooping
wings, potions in jewelled, and a skull still
wearing it's crown.”
The above passage of course describes the
entrance to the vault of none other than Bellatrix
Lestrange. Bellatrix Lestrange was a pure-blood
witch that hailed from the Black family- and
later married in to the pure-blood Lestrange
family. Both the Black family and Lestrange
families were wealthy in their own right-both
stemming from the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’,
a directory of truly pure-blood families that
still existed within the wizarding world.
Each family was immensely wealthy-with ‘old’
money passing down from generation to generation.
Bellatrix, and her husband Rodolphous, ended
up with a large portion of the money from
both family trees, and the combination of
these fortunes made them the richest witch
and wizard in the entire wizarding world-
overshadowing even the Malfoys. Yes, Narcissa
probably got some of the money from the Black
family fortune as well, but given that Bellatrix
was a much more ‘overbearing’ personality,
I would expect that she received a larger
share. Bellatrix was also the older sister.
Bellatrix lived a lavish lifestyle, and there
are a lot of reasons that she was able to
effectively hold on to her fortune.
First of all, she spent a massive amount of
time in Azkaban prison, which gave her almost
no opportunity to spend any of her huge fortune.
It just sat there in the vault. Next, Bellatrix
didn’t bear any children (at least until
Delphini, who didn’t appear on our radar
until long after Bellatrix died), which meant
that she didn’t have to distribute the wealth
within her family at all. The Malfoys had
an impetuous and EXPENSIVE son, which no doubt
took a chunk out of their fortune.
The Lestrange vault at Gringotts wasn’t
just under high security because of the Horcrux
hiding inside of it-it was also because it
contained more gold than any other vault in
the wizarding bank. Bellatrix Lestrange was
the richest witch in the entire wizarding
world.
And that’s it for this video! I hope you
enjoyed it- what do you think? Is this a compelling
argument? Who do YOU think is the richest?
Let us know down in the comment section below
Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY
