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