Wizards have plenty to trade to Muggles—by providing services, not products.
Magical cures to deadly diseases and accidents. A replicable cure can’t be traded, but wizards can individually cure powerful and wealthy people. (Harry speculates that wizards would probably cure cancer in members of the Muggle government.)
Military and covert operations, assassinations, coups, revolutions, etc. Apparate in, kill the enemy government and generals, win the war. Toppling any regime in the world that hasn’t purchased magical protection of its own would give you a lot of money. In fact, every wizarding community should be able to demand arbitrary amounts of protection money from its local Muggles.
Theft and spying (industrial and government).
Subversion and interrogation of enemy leaders (by Legilimency, Veritaserum, Imperius.)
Creation of single-action devices via Transmutation (like some of the things Harry tried in his experiments). Muggles can then study, analyze, experiment on, or copy the Transmuted devices while they last.
Transportation. Launch satellites by Apparating into orbit! Rescue trapped people!
A wizard could easily play a Muggle Superman—flying, being invincible, combatting crime...
Creation of single-action devices via Transmutation (like some of the things Harry tried in his experiments). Muggles can then study, analyze, experiment on, or copy the Transmuted devices while they last.
Well, it’s not clear why it failed exactly. It might have been because it never existed before, but it seems more likely to me that it was because Harry didn’t know what it was exactly. He didn’t try to transmute “this molecular structure I have in my mind”, he tried to transmute “a substance I know nothing about except that it cures Alzheimer’s”. That was probably not specific enough for the spell. (Otherwise, why not transmute a black-box device with a big red “kill Voldemort where-ever he is” button, or a mysterious “bring a dead body back to life” device?)
In any case there are things who physical properties we know, and which exist or have existed, but would be very valuable to create in laboratories. Like creating a string of DNA to order, which can then replicate itself into ordinary non-transmuted matter—very valuable in 1993!
Wizards have plenty to trade to Muggles—by providing services, not products.
Magical cures to deadly diseases and accidents. A replicable cure can’t be traded, but wizards can individually cure powerful and wealthy people. (Harry speculates that wizards would probably cure cancer in members of the Muggle government.)
Military and covert operations, assassinations, coups, revolutions, etc. Apparate in, kill the enemy government and generals, win the war. Toppling any regime in the world that hasn’t purchased magical protection of its own would give you a lot of money. In fact, every wizarding community should be able to demand arbitrary amounts of protection money from its local Muggles.
Theft and spying (industrial and government).
Subversion and interrogation of enemy leaders (by Legilimency, Veritaserum, Imperius.)
Creation of single-action devices via Transmutation (like some of the things Harry tried in his experiments). Muggles can then study, analyze, experiment on, or copy the Transmuted devices while they last.
Transportation. Launch satellites by Apparating into orbit! Rescue trapped people!
A wizard could easily play a Muggle Superman—flying, being invincible, combatting crime...
Great list. Upvoted.
I think that actually failed …
Well, it’s not clear why it failed exactly. It might have been because it never existed before, but it seems more likely to me that it was because Harry didn’t know what it was exactly. He didn’t try to transmute “this molecular structure I have in my mind”, he tried to transmute “a substance I know nothing about except that it cures Alzheimer’s”. That was probably not specific enough for the spell. (Otherwise, why not transmute a black-box device with a big red “kill Voldemort where-ever he is” button, or a mysterious “bring a dead body back to life” device?)
In any case there are things who physical properties we know, and which exist or have existed, but would be very valuable to create in laboratories. Like creating a string of DNA to order, which can then replicate itself into ordinary non-transmuted matter—very valuable in 1993!
Yeah, Harry discovered that you can’t transmute something that hasn’t already been created through more conventional means.