There might also be some laws restricting trade between the wizarding economy and the Muggle economy. In other words, if you take a bunch of Galleons and try to sell them to Muggles, you’ll probably end up arrested or something. Part of the whole “Muggles can’t be allowed to know about wizards, unless they’re close relatives of wizards” thing.
You could avoid selling Galleons per se by melting them into bullion first. Maybe Galleons are unmeltable? Or the gold turns into leaves and gorse blossoms when handled extensively by Muggles? It seems like with magic at one’s disposal one doesn’t have to rely on mere law to prevent wizard/Muggle arbitrage.
No, that wouldn’t work. In MoR, the routineness of coining Sickles implies that it’s routine to coin ordinary gold into Galleons; if the coinage were irreversible, then you would see Gresham’s law start to operate.
Ordinary gold would be more valuable then an equivalent weight of Galleons because you could at any time turn the gold into Galleons but with ordinary gold you have all the other decorative and magical uses of gold available. As Galleons are created and not destroyed, ever more inflation of Galleons and deflation of gold would happen.
(Have you ever bought funny money, like the Mickey Mouse money at Disney World? The Galleons would be like the Mickey Mouse money, and gold like regular dollars. Except worse.)
(Magical) code is law, but the laws of economics are more akin to laws of logic than legal laws—try to bend them, and you’ll either accomplish nothing or it’ll bite you somehow. You need subtler tactics than just unmeltable coins or disappearing specie.
Hrm… that’s a possibility. Though when Harry asked Griphook, I think it was, about interaction between the two economies, he didn’t say “no, that’s illegal”, but simply no. That’s not proof, but I’d have thought it would come up if that was the issue. But other than that, maybe you’re right.
There might also be some laws restricting trade between the wizarding economy and the Muggle economy. In other words, if you take a bunch of Galleons and try to sell them to Muggles, you’ll probably end up arrested or something. Part of the whole “Muggles can’t be allowed to know about wizards, unless they’re close relatives of wizards” thing.
You could avoid selling Galleons per se by melting them into bullion first. Maybe Galleons are unmeltable? Or the gold turns into leaves and gorse blossoms when handled extensively by Muggles? It seems like with magic at one’s disposal one doesn’t have to rely on mere law to prevent wizard/Muggle arbitrage.
No, that wouldn’t work. In MoR, the routineness of coining Sickles implies that it’s routine to coin ordinary gold into Galleons; if the coinage were irreversible, then you would see Gresham’s law start to operate.
Ordinary gold would be more valuable then an equivalent weight of Galleons because you could at any time turn the gold into Galleons but with ordinary gold you have all the other decorative and magical uses of gold available. As Galleons are created and not destroyed, ever more inflation of Galleons and deflation of gold would happen.
(Have you ever bought funny money, like the Mickey Mouse money at Disney World? The Galleons would be like the Mickey Mouse money, and gold like regular dollars. Except worse.)
I am edified and grateful for it.
(Magical) code is law, but the laws of economics are more akin to laws of logic than legal laws—try to bend them, and you’ll either accomplish nothing or it’ll bite you somehow. You need subtler tactics than just unmeltable coins or disappearing specie.
Hrm… that’s a possibility. Though when Harry asked Griphook, I think it was, about interaction between the two economies, he didn’t say “no, that’s illegal”, but simply no. That’s not proof, but I’d have thought it would come up if that was the issue. But other than that, maybe you’re right.