Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

So Lockhart got up early in the morning, washed his face with cold water, and prepared to go for a morning run.

Beside the door, he saw a big black dog sleeping in a puddle of ooze on the cushion.

He thought that after turning into a dog, Blake would curl up on the ground and sleep like a normal dog.

But he obviously wasn't pretending enough, not only was the whole dog lying on its side, but there was also a puddle of saliva drooling from the corner of its mouth, snoring slightly.

Lockhart shook his head, then quietly opened the door and walked towards the lake.

Because it was not the weekend yet, Hogsmeade was still very quiet, and many shops were not yet open. Lockhart ran on the road and could only see people in twos and threes. They all went out to fetch water from the lake in the early morning.

Coincidentally, Lockhart saw a man on the road, and he was one of the people Lockhart planned to visit in the next few days.

"Good morning, Davis!" Lockhart greeted a bald man.

The person who was called was using the movement spell to direct eight wooden barrels to roll obliquely on the ground. After hearing Lockhart's cry, he turned his head, looking a little surprised.

"Lockhart! Oh, I thought you had resigned from Hogwarts." He stopped himself.

""Yeah, resigned, but the Ministry of Magic sent me to work here again... Coincidentally, I'm going to your place to discuss a big business, you'd better call Bance, are you free this afternoon? "

"He and I were there, and my wife just baked some cookies..." Davis raised his eyebrows, "What business?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Lockhart tried to whet his appetite.

Hogsmeade's "Devis-Bans" is a shop that sells and repairs magical equipment. During the Hogwarts class, it mainly does business for Hogwarts students, and also picks up other villagers in some villages. It's like a carpenter who is almost necessary in a Muggle village.

After the dueling club was opened last year, students who broke their magic equipment during the duel often came to them to repair it on weekends, and their business improved a lot because of this.

After hearing Lockhart say that there is a "big business", De Weiss heart immediately became a little itchy - the Weizeac brothers made a small fortune last year, but De Weiss and Bans only Being able to eat leftovers from other people's food and earn some maintenance fees made both of them a little uncomfortable.

Originally, the wizarding world was highly self-sufficient economically. The difference between having money and not having money was just a difference in houses, clothes and potions, but it was not that difficult to survive.

But this world is afraid of comparison, and there is nothing more uncomfortable than watching others make money while you have nothing to eat.

Watching Lockhart gradually run away, De Weiss was stunned for a while, and then remembered that he should continue to fetch water.

In addition to De Weiss, Lockhart also saw several acquaintances on the way to the lake.

They are all residents of the village doing business, such as the owner of the Wenrenju stationery store, the owner of Zuko's joke shop, and the clerks employed by the international chain store, Fengya Wizard Clothing Store.

After seeing Lockhart, they all greeted him in a friendly manner. After all, this is a big benefactor who can not only consume himself, but also drive everyone to get rich together.

In the past year, we also got along very well

Lockhart naturally wants to show his closeness to the people, just like the prime minister who went to a second-hand store to buy clothes for a show, and talked enthusiastically with everyone he saw—for a while, I am afraid that no one will know that he has been here .

Only in this way, the effect of exercising is greatly reduced.

But Lockhart didn't care. Apart from exercising, he came to the lake to inspect the water environment around Hogsmeade. He wanted to see if water would be available after the Triwizard Tournament.

Although Hogsmeade is the only purely wizarding village in England, it is still built near a water source, just like Muggle villages.

There is only a train station between Hogsmeade and Black Lake, and it takes only a few minutes to walk. Therefore, since ancient times, residents of Hogsmeade have relied on the most primitive "self-pick-up by the lake" method to get water. Finish.

Just like Mr. Deweiss, one person uses a spell to control several wooden barrels, one time is enough for a day, and it is easy.

If you are more proficient in spellcasting, you can even use "clear water like a spring AguamantiJ" to fetch water, which can call water from nearby water sources. But this spell is only taught in the advanced class of magic spells in the sixth grade of Hogwarts, not everyone Wizards know it, and it is difficult to use it in desert areas where there is no water around.

It is precisely because of the convenience of the spell that Hogsmeade did not learn from the Muggle village, and built a well or a fountain in the center of the village, because it was unnecessary.

Although this is completely enough for their own consumption, if foreign tourists who come to watch the Triwizard Tournament are held here in the future, it may not be able to meet the needs of so many people just by using wooden barrels to fetch water.

As a person with great ambitions to make this Triwizard Tournament an event that the world will talk about many years later, Lockhart certainly cannot tolerate

He's going to make such a small mistake, he's going to reinstall a water system in Hogsmeade

Of course, the wizarding world also has a tap water system, the principle is roughly the same as the Muggle piping system, and the time when wizards introduced pipes is roughly the same as the time when Hogwarts was transformed, both in the 18th century.

For example, in Hogwarts, one of the boys' bathrooms is on the seventh floor. If there is no running water system, it is hard to imagine Mr. Filch carrying hundreds of buckets of water upstairs every day.

The tallest tower in Hogwarts is the Astronomy Tower, the North Tower is the divination classroom and office, the headmaster's office is in a separate small tower, and the Gryffindor Tower and Ravenclaw Tower are the common rooms and dormitories of the two houses. .

Therefore, it is not difficult to guess the location of Hogwarts' high water tower. If there is no accident, it should be located in the only tower that has neither offices nor classrooms—the west tower.

Professor Flitwick's office is the closest to the west tower. Lockhart guessed that this may be because he is responsible for replenishing dozens of tons of water for the west tower with a magic spell every morning. Of course, Flitwick will definitely not use "clear water like a spring" , but will use "water jet Aqua_EruicT

The Ministry of Magic is relatively easy to solve - because it is located in London, it can directly use the Muggle water pipe system, and because the Ministry of Magic is underground, they don't even need to pressurize the water, but it is located on the eighth floor of the Ministry of Magic The "Magic Brothers Fountain" in the lobby is proof of that.

Hogwarts can use towers for water towers, and the Ministry of Magic is underground in London, so they only need to solve the water problem to get running water.But there are no particularly tall buildings in the Hogsmeade village, and the only advantage is that it is very close to the water source.

So if he wanted to introduce a water system, Lockhart could only use the same method as the ancient Romans to build aqueducts one by one.

Chapter 160 The Economic Foundation of the Wizarding World

The Ministry of Magic had granted Lockhart 300 Galleons, which would certainly be enough to build an elevated aqueduct, and even if he bargained harder, the masons could spare him a fountain.

But the problem is that Lockhart can't spend all 300 Galleons on this thing. There are too many places to prepare for the Triwizard Tournament. If he spends it all on water diversion, then his ambitious plan There is no way to expand at all.

For this? He has to think of something more.

When he got back to the Shrieking Shack, Dobby had already made breakfast and had been waiting for him for a long time.

Fried bacon, eggs, two slices of toast and a bunch of cherry tomatoes, although not complicated, Lockhart couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the degree of deliciousness.

It seems that there is a reason why all pure-blood families want house-elves. No matter who they are, after being served to this level, they will feel lazy and become dependent.

Just as he started to eat, the big black dog that was hiding behind the door finally woke up.

It opened its mouth quite humanely, yawned, then rolled over and sat up, raising its paws, as if it wanted to rub its eyes.

But when it saw Lockhart who was eating breakfast, it froze all over, as if remembering something, then put its front paws down again, and quickly flicked the fur on its body a few times, just like an ordinary dog .

Lockhart, absorbed in his newspaper, ignored him.

He mainly looks at information on oil prices. Since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, the "recalcitrant" Iraq was defeated because its oil wells were unable to produce and vacated.

The gap in international oil trading that has been opened is also occupied by OPEC, and the power of oil pricing has since been completely transferred to the hands of the Middle East, Europe and the United States, and even the newly born Russia needs to rely on it.

The Soviet Union disintegrated, and Iraq was easily defeated by the U.S. military using asymmetrical warfare. At this time, the U.S. could be said to be invincible in the world. Even the military of a certain eastern country lost its voice for a while, so it had to curl up and secretly study the tactics of the U.S. military.

With a strong military, it naturally has the right to speak politically. The New York Oil Trading Center also uses this to control nearly [-]% of the world's oil trading volume.And "allies" such as the United Kingdom can only temporarily avoid the edge and follow the United States to pick up some leftovers.

The reason why the world's second largest oil trading center in London can keep its trading volume is because the North Sea still produces oil, and the oil in many countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe is priced with reference to it, so it can keep a part of it. pricing power.

Among the oils that are priced with reference to the "spot Brent crude oil price" in long-term contracts, the role of African oil is very important. In Nigeria alone, there are Bonny Light Oil, Bonny Petroleum, Brass River Crude Oil, Esclavos crude oil, Forcados crude oil, Pennington crude oil, Ibodo crude oil and other varieties.

Whether these oil products can be traded in London is very important to the British, and they rely on this to pinch the balls of the entire European people.

Lockhart has been thinking about where wizards should start if they want to maintain a "free but not lacking in cooperation" distance from the Muggle world.

A truly stable relationship requires both parties to rely on each other and be able to benefit from mutual exchanges and cooperation. Otherwise, even if the two parties have to unite temporarily under the influence of some external forces, they will fall apart immediately after the external forces disappear.

What is happening now is that Muggles have survived for hundreds of years even without the things produced by the wizarding world, and they have flourished even more since the Industrial Revolution.

But on the contrary, the wizarding world is in great need of things produced by Muggles—from agricultural products to common raw materials and simple industrial products, they all need them. Even if the wizarding world has alternative spells and items, the high cost of manpower and material resources will Let wizards choose to use cheap Muggle creations.

As Carnegie, the American steel magnate, said: "Two pounds of iron are mined from Lake Superior and shipped to Pittsburgh, 900 miles away; a pound and a half of coal is mined, made into coke, and shipped to Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh; a small amount of ore is mined in Virginia and shipped to Pittsburgh--out of these four pounds make a pound of steel for which the consumer pays only a penny."

Although the wizard can use magic to mine ore and smelt steel, in any case, even if only one person is used from beginning to end, he cannot reduce the cost of this pound of steel to 1 cent.

1 cent, which is half a Knut, and a copy of the "Daily Prophet" is much more expensive than this, and judging from the consumption of steel by wizards, such a low price cannot even pay for labor costs.

Minpa later became inflationary, and the price of a pound of mammoth steel rose to 24 cents, and 12 Knuts was not a profit margin acceptable to wizards. If they wanted to use steel, they would definitely go directly to a Muggle hardware store to buy it.

Since wizards need to import from the Muggle world in terms of fast-moving daily necessities and raw materials for production, this means that the economic foundation of the wizarding world is actually built on the Muggle economic foundation, regardless of whether the pure-blood families admit it or not. Admit that it's all the same.

As Dumbledore wrote in the preface to "Where are the Fantastic Beasts", Muggles alone can raise nearly 8 million pounds, or about 5000 million Galleons, for a charity foundation that funds comedy. And the money that the foundation gave to the Silent Book Company in the end was only a small amount, but this figure was enough to silence the entire wizarding world.

From the pure-blood family to the Ministry of Magic, everyone seems to have suddenly forgotten

I also made the "Secrecy Act" and acquiesced to sell the textbook "Where to Find Fantastic Beasts" in the wizarding world as an absurd fantasy novel to the Muggle world.

Since this is the reality, Lockhart no longer intends to slap his swollen face to pretend to be fat.If he were to be the Minister of Magic, he would obediently take advantage of the fact that the Muggle Prime Minister was still being fooled, put on a friendly gesture, and shout "Let's be good friends, local tyrants."

Of course, kneeling and licking without a bottom line will not gain respect from the wizarding world, just like licking a dog will never win the favor of a goddess.In order to get the attention of the Muggle world, the wizarding world must show a strong side in military, cultural, and economic aspects. Only in this way can the logic of "I have a gun in my hand, but you don't" be left in those minds. Politicians wake up.

Not to mention that after the Muggle world learned of the existence of the wizarding world, it is absolutely impossible to let it exist under the nose for a long time, because it is "uncontrollable"

If the wizarding world can slowly master Nigerian oil under Lockhart's plan, then the British financial community will definitely look at the wizards with admiration." Even if it is to fight against the New York Petroleum Exchange, they will choose to win over the wizards—the status is This way.

In addition, Lockhart has many big plans—such as cooperation in military, intelligence, medical treatment, and health care products. These are still in the strong period of wizards for the time being. The last advantage of the wizarding world may also be wiped out, and even if they want to cooperate again, their cards will disappear.

Oil prices will be relatively stable in recent years, which is a good opportunity for wizards. If the layout can be completed before the financial crisis in 98, then the wizarding world can officially extend its tentacles to the Muggle world.

After putting down the newspaper, Lockhart found that Sirius Black's black dog was sitting in front of the dining table, staring at the plate in front of Lockhart, eyes full of infinite desire.

Boy, where is your dignity?Lockhart looked sideways.

So he picked up the remaining pieces of bacon on the plate with a fork, intending to pass it under the table, but when he lifted it halfway, he remembered that it was not respectful, so he put the whole plate on the ground.

"Dobby!" he yelled deliberately at the house-elf. "Didn't I say I don't like overcooked bacon, and you see—it shrinks!"

"I'm so sorry, master, that Dobby pricked his hand with a fork."

"Stop it... I'm going out to meet customers today, and you will wash this dog for me as you said yesterday!"

"Okay, as ordered."

Then, Lockhart threw the "Financial Daily" and "Daily Prophet" aside in his hand - he knew that Sirius would definitely read these newspapers when no one was there.

Next, he wrote a letter to his brother-in-law William, telling him the progress of the oil well development, allowing him to open an account in the futures market. company's name.

Sniffing can find gold and treasure, they hope the name will bring them good luck

If possible, I hope you can establish a good relationship with people who specialize in oil futures. If there are related dances, clubs, and alumni associations, then just join them, and don’t be afraid to spend money..." Lockhart wrote in the letter wrote in.

Chapter 160 Six Blindfolding the Donkey's Eyes

Immediately after breakfast, Mr. Davis prepared refreshments, waiting for Lockhart's visit.

Of course, Lockhart has to fulfill the contract. He agreed to visit but didn't go, which is as serious as letting the readers dove.If you want to continue in this business for a long time, this kind of reputation cannot be bad.

For the sake of business, he received warm hospitality from the other party.After exchanging pleasantries with Mr. Dewes for a while, Lockhart brought up the "business" in a businesslike manner

■

■

"Now I'm a staff member of the Ministry of Magic's "International Tournament Organizing Office", responsible for the preliminary work of an international competition..."

"International Wizards Duel Competition?" Both De Weiss and Mr. Bans were overjoyed

Hogwarts just held the Dueling Club last year: their business has increased several times, and it is hard to imagine how prosperous their business will be if they hold international competitions.

"I'm afraid it won't be as good, but it's about the same. There will be many foreigners coming to Hogwarts to watch the match, but there won't be too many people participating in the match...I should keep this matter a secret."

Lockhart seemed to think of something after speaking halfway, so he added another sentence.The two shopkeepers exchanged glances, and then turned their heads together: "Don't worry, we will keep the secret for you."

Lockhart smiled, and his smile was full of hints: "Of course I believe that you can keep the secret... In short, let's look at the business first. The first step is to represent the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts and build a water system in the village , which is the equipment we need to clear

Single... Look at it. "

Mr. Davis took the list, glanced at it, and frowned.

"Water towers, wind booster pumps, Polyethylene pipes... sounds like Muggle stuff."

As a person who specializes in tinkering and repairing various objects, he is no stranger to Muggle things. There are even Muggle bicycles and propeller blades in his shop, so he can recognize them at a glance.

"It's Muggle stuff. The whole set costs about £800, or 00 Galleons," Lockhart said.

"Why do you want to buy Muggle things?" De Weiss asked inexplicably, "You can let us do it, and then turn the mud into stones to make a pool, and fill it with clean water like a spring every day.

"In that case, we would need to pay you 200 galleons for the construction, and we would have to hire someone to fill the pool every day, which would cost an extra 40 galleons a month, right?" Lockhart asked rhetorically.

Davis fell silent.

"But after changing this system, we only need to check it once a year, use "clean and new" on the water pipe once, and use "repair as new" on the windmill bearing, and it doesn't even take 10 minutes before and after." Lockhart continued Added another sentence.

Mr. Bance shrugged: "I remember you came to discuss business with us? If you want to buy Muggle things, we don't seem to need us."

"If Muggle construction crews could go into Hogsmeade, I think I would.

oo That's why I want you two to be responsible for building this system. "

Lockhart emphasized to them that he didn't have outside staff not because of the cost, but because Muggles couldn't enter.

Of course, what he didn't tell these two wizards is that according to the current labor cost in the UK, it is very likely that the purchase of materials will only cost a few hundred pounds, but the installation fee will also cost

Hundreds of pounds.

The two immediately refused: "But we don't understand how the Muggle plumbing system is made, and we have never done it."

"Just learn, and I'll pay you." Lockhart said succinctly, "To be honest, our budget for this project is 200 Galleons. The more money you save, the more money you can make for yourself." More...you guys will help me, right?"

"But we really..."