Chapter 388 Progress Report
"If it's not for the beautiful Miss Granger, then what is the purpose of our organization to win over Muggle wizards?" Daphne's eyes turned and she asked with a smile.
Schelling took a long breath.
This is actually not a secret. He just feels that the real reason is difficult to explain to others, especially the students who need to explain it to students who have never set foot in society.
In fact, he also knew that with his current prestige, even if he chose not to explain, there would be no voice questioning him in Mianlong Club.
However, Daphne, Mo Rui and others have been working hard for him and silently paying for him since they established the Sleeping Dragon Society. In addition to what happened with Eleanor earlier, and now Hermione was mentioned, he didn't want to cause any misunderstanding and chill the hearts of several girls.
"Okay, I'll try to explain it to you," Schelling said solemnly.
"The wizarding world of Great Britain has actually been standing still since this century, and the development of the entire society has almost come to a standstill. Have you ever thought about the reason?" Schelling asked.
"This..." Daphne said uncertainly: "Is it because of the Ministry of Magic's bureaucracy and official corruption? Or is it because of Minister Fudge's weakness and incompetence in governance?"
"No," Murray said, "I think what Schelling means is that the solidification of classes and the monopoly of knowledge have caused magic to lose the opportunity to innovate."
"What you said is actually correct," Xie Lin nodded in disbelief and said, "But you didn't get to the point."
"Whether it is the various unfair regulations of the Ministry of Magic, the brain drain caused by class solidification, or the academic barriers caused by knowledge monopoly, these are indeed prerequisites for the development of the magical society, but they do not drive the magical society to innovate. and motivation for development.”
"Development actually needs to be driven by the supply and demand relationship in a certain state."
"To give a simple and easy-to-understand analogy, the most common means of transportation in the wizarding world is the broomstick, right?" Xie Lin continued: "But have you ever thought about it, that the broomstick is not necessarily the best means of transportation."
"What do you mean?" At this moment, several girls were aroused and listened attentively.
"Flying broomsticks involve a huge chain of interests. In order to maintain a sense of superiority in their class status, powerful wizards have firmly controlled the productivity, keeping the price of broomsticks high, forcing wizards from ordinary families to have no choice but to Work hard and save money, and finally spend a lot of savings to buy a flying broomstick. By that time, the flying broomstick often comes out with various upgraded versions, with more functions, faster speed, and more stable performance, right? "
Several girls nodded.
"In this case, because the market demand is far greater than the supply, people can only blindly pursue a broomstick that they can afford. And the broomstick manufacturers are all thinking about how to make the broomstick more beautiful. Only by flying faster can we seize a larger market share in the competition.”
"Human innovation is driven by demand - without enough demand, there will not be enough potential benefits, so it will be difficult for anyone to invest energy, time and money in researching another direction and innovating."
"We might as well imagine another possibility -" Xie Lin talked eloquently. "If one day, the classes are broken down, or the secret knowledge of making broomsticks is no longer monopolized, the price of broomsticks begins to become civilian, almost When all wizards start to be able to afford a high-quality broomstick, the gap between the rich and the poor will be narrowed. What do you think will happen?”
"Probably it will be like food," Murray adjusted the black-rimmed glasses on her face and showed her scholarly spirit of studying history. "When the entire society gets rid of famine and the dilemma of insufficient food production, people will You will start to look for new needs, that is, your needs will begin to escalate, slowly changing from survival value needs to emotional value needs.”
"Yes, take the broomstick as an example. In order to regain a sense of class superiority, or to find a new way to make money, someone will be willing to invest a lot of money in research. Maybe one day, a brand new transportation system will be developed. Tools will appear, maybe even completely replace the broomstick."
"The crux of the problem lies here -" Schelling said: "Most of the wealth in the wizarding world is in the hands of pure-blood families. Even if ordinary wizards have some excellent ideas, they do not have enough resources to realize them. Not to mention that most of the monopolized industries involve various knowledge and craftsmanship that are regarded as family secrets. Without these knowledge and craftsmanship accumulated over hundreds of years as a basis, ordinary wizards want to research them all on their own. , it will take at least another few decades.”
What Schelling was talking about was actually the basic knowledge of economics and sociology in the Muggle world. Although it was only basic knowledge, it was quite sufficient for a wizarding society where the financial and monetary system was still linked to precious metals.
Several girls opened their mouths wide and were stunned for a while.
"Well, although I didn't understand it clearly, what role did Muggle wizards play in this?" Daphne asked reluctantly.
"As I said, innovation and development are driven by demand, and will only appear when the gap between each class - whether pureblood, half-blood or Muggle - is narrowed to a certain extent. Opportunities for innovation and reform, especially when this innovation is enough to cause revolutionary changes," Schelling explained patiently, "So, we cannot give up on Muggle wizards. The promotion of new magic requires the participation of the whole society."
"Actually, I have another idea," Schelling said: "Muggle wizards grew up with Muggle education, and their exposure and way of thinking are very different from ours. For example, they attach great importance to calculation and Logic, this difference in thinking is an important source of sparks of inspiration.”
"I still say the same thing. The innovation of the magical world requires the joint efforts of every wizard. Every talent is precious. Bloodline discrimination will ultimately only lead to the loss and waste of talent." Xie Lin concluded.
"Okay, you passed the test." Daphne smiled mischievously, "We believe that your decision to win over Muggle wizards has nothing to do with Granger, so that you can save yourself the trouble of coming up with another long story later."
Phew, finally passed.
Xie Lin shook his head and then said: "Let's not talk about this anymore. Is there any recent progress in Mianlong Club that I need to report to me?"
"Susan has asked me to pass on some information - Peter Pettigrew has been in contact with the Silver Spear organization, and has successfully joined the Bounty Hunters Guild. He will go to a Middle Eastern country that is deeply involved in war and civil strife in the near future for experience," Daphne said.
"Well, I understand, is there anything else?" Xie Lin said casually.
“The vassal families of the Selwyn family and the Yaxley family—the three heads of the Blackge family, the Quigley family, and the Cadwallader family—formally signed a magical contract to swear allegiance to you yesterday. , and the contract document has been sent over, do you want to read it?" After saying that, Daphne took out a stack of parchment from her pocket, which exuded a faint fluctuation of magic power.
"No need, I can rest assured that you can do your job." Looking at the densely written contract clauses on the document, Xie Lin said softly and with some distress: "Thank you, Daphne."
Xie Lin knew that it was not easy to deal with the complicated relationships between these pure-blood families. Fortunately, he had Daphne, a girlfriend he absolutely trusted, to share the burden for him.
"One more thing. After we received Cadwallader's surrender, Cadwallader, who is still studying in Hufflepuff, has joined the Sleeping Dragon Society through Susan under the instructions of his family."
"He himself is the chaser of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and is very prestigious in Hufflepuff House. Joining him is his best friend who is also a substitute on the Quidditch team. Seeker Sharpie. I have arranged for two people to join the Dragon Eye team that Susan is in charge of, to share the intelligence work for Susan, and to recruit senior students from Hufflepuff to join the Sleeping Dragon Club."
"Well done." Xie Lin praised, "But we still need to pay more attention to the ability and loyalty of the new members."
Among the three houses of Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, needless to say Slytherin, Ravenclaw has Zhang Qiu, and only the senior students of Hufflepuff have always been sleeping dragons. The area that is difficult for the society to penetrate has now been joined by two new members, which just fills this gap.
"There is no question about Cadwallader's loyalty. The magic contract made by their family master contains this point - if Urig fails to understand the current situation and acts to harm the organization, it will have serious consequences for his entire family. After saying that, she turned her eyes to Murray and said, "That's about it. I have nothing else to do here."
Murray said: "Xie Lin, for the black Bowtruckle and active storage fluid you gave me, I have gathered the right members to establish two specialized project teams, and they have officially started their respective research work last night. ”
"Well, we will increase the priority of researching the black Bowtruckle. If this thing is successfully researched, the safety of the members of the Sleeping Dragon Society will be greatly improved."
"Ok, I see."