Hermione, Be the Minister of Magic with Me!

In this official report, Lockhart wrote down everything he was going to do in Hogsmeade, and explained and explained what he was going to do in strict accordance with the viewpoints and theories of structural realism. illustrate.

Don't ask why Lockhart is clearly a rationalist British school, but he

Constructive realism so understands.

In fact, with the Ravenclaw crown, Lockhart can figure out how to make himself an "expert" in that field in a day, whether his boss is realist, liberal or constructivist

Sure enough, Barty Crouch admired Lockhart's document, both in terms of its format and the theory it cites when expounding its content.

If it wasn't for the content, he even wanted to send this official document and let all the staff of the International Magic Cooperation Division come to learn it, because this is the "model essay" in his mind.

It's a pity that he can't, because he really can't evaluate the content of this official document.

Intermediate trade'? "Export Commodities Fair"? And "magic processing" of Muggle goods?"

Barty Crouch took off his glasses and rubbed his temples with a headache, "Tell me, what do you mean?"

Chapter 147 Thinking from the Olympic Games

Barty Crouch's question was not so easy for Lockhart to answer because he still didn't know enough about where his new boss stood.

He is not sure what Barty Crouch's attitude towards "reform" is, so he can only use this method to test carefully.

"Some of the latter measures belong to long-term development, such as the establishment of the intermediate processing market, but we will have to wait for the Triwizard Tournament to test the water effect before deciding whether to implement it." Lockhart said cautiously, "If possible, I think Do what you can do first, step by step.”

"I'm listening." Barty Crouch remained calm.

With the recent deepening of the understanding of these pure blood families, Lockhart gradually discovered that the so-called ancient families in the "Sacred Twenty-Eight Pure Blood", although not all of them are family origins, but their connections are definitely There are, and that even includes the Longbottoms and the Weasleys.

A man like Marchban, who doesn't shy away from the Malfoys, has been close friends with Mrs. Longbottom for many years. From the novel, we can also see that the Ministry of Magic is almost all acquaintances of Arthur Weasley from top to bottom, which also shows the importance of his family background, even if he himself works in a cold yamen .

Because of the general age of wizards and the loose social structure, their class mobility will definitely be slower than that of Muggles, and the degree of conservatism will also be higher. You can't expect every old wizard to be like Dumbledore. Positive attitude towards reform.

According to the normal rhythm, as a half-blood wizard with no connections, if Lockhart wanted to ascend, he would have to spend forty or fifty years in the Ministry of Magic. When the old people are tired of all this and decide to retire voluntarily, he may not be able to get a chance.

That's why Lohahaha did not hesitate to take the opportunity to teach him at Hogwarts.

With Blido's support, it seemed like it took him an extra year, but it could save him twenty years of struggle.

But now, as long as he doesn't deal well with one, the 20 years he won are likely to be beaten back by Barty Crouch for five years.

Lockhart decided to express his views from the most realistic point of view: "Director, I personally believe that the Triwizard Tournament should not be a waste of money entertainment, we should use it to show the world we Britons. unity and prosperity in Scotland... a little money along the way."

Crouch didn't immediately agree: "But I must warn you first, it's almost impossible to make money from this entertainment, and it's bound to be a losing business."

"Losing money?" Lockhart didn't wait for Crouch's surprise to express his surprise, but he was a little surprised. "How can the Triwizard Tournament lose money?"

In this humble Ministry of Magic, everyone who can become a director is destined to be a generalist, and Mr. Crouch is no exception. He calculated the cost of holding the Triwizard Tournament for Lockhart on the spot.

"The championship bonus is 1,000 Galleons. This can't be saved. No matter how low it is, it will be very shabby. Lending an adult dragon from Romania is a huge amount of money. One of them will cost 300 Galleons. We have to prepare three. That's nine hundred; the merman asked us for metal weapons, and I rejected them, saying that considering the rust relationship, they could only give them some stone weapons, but it would also cost some processing fees; the sphinx imported from Greece The money is not a small sum, and we have to buy the rest of the dangerous animals from the witchers. If they need to be caught alive, their asking price will be higher.

In addition to the money that cannot be saved, it is difficult to deduct the money for receiving foreign guests, building stands, and renting equipment... Of course, the biggest one is the cost of hiring professional referees and other game maintenance personnel, while security personnel are We at the Ministry of Magic will take care of it ourselves, otherwise the budget will not be enough. "

After Lockhart listened to Crouch's report, he roughly calculated a number in his mind.

"That is to say, about 20 times the prize money, which is about 20,000 Galleons.

It wasn't a huge number, and compared to some of the Muggle mid-sized tournaments Lockhart knew of, the hosting fee was only 20 times the prize money, which was quite frugal.

"Yeah, it's almost the same number. The maintenance cost of the Ministry of Magic is less than 300,000 a year, which is already a lot of money... That's why I opposed holding the Triwizard Tournament in the first place. First, it's too dangerous. The second is that it is too much for the financial pressure.”

Roja if temple thought the same, if there is a national government on the Muggle side that uses one-seventh of the tax revenue to hold a sports meeting, then the head of the government will definitely be sacked by the people.

That's what the wizarding world can do - because food and utensil production are highly self-sufficient, wizards' overall demand for money is not as great as Muggles'.

For Lockhart, his most valuable gain was not knowing these specific financial budgets, but knowing the director's attitude towards the Triwizard Tournament.

Barty Crouch believes that the Triwizard Tournament is a complete waste of money, and the process of the game is meaningless. Once a dangerous accident such as a dead person occurs, they will also be held responsible for it.

It's just that he never said these words to outsiders, and in line with the rules and regulations, he just euphemistically reminded Fudge with the budget issue, and did not let him down in public.

And Fudge's response was even more eloquent—he didn't say no or a solution, just "we believe you can solve the problem."

Solve the problem? What problem can he solve?

Crouch's original intention was to wait for Lockhart to go to Hogsmeade, and let him make specific requirements according to the actual situation, and then he could take these specific requirements and go to the minister to ask for money.

But Lockhart gave him a surprise - he seemed to want to solve the funding problem himself without asking the Ministry of Magic for a penny.

"How are you going to solve the fundraising issue?" Barty Crouch asked suspiciously, "You can't get it back from ticket money."

He dared to assert that, of course, there was a reason - Britain had a small population of wizards, 60 million people only had 10,000 wizards, and other countries had about the same proportion.

In other words, the entire EU may only have about 80,000 wizards. Even if you count the wizard population in Russia, North Africa and the British colonies, it should not exceed 120,000. It is estimated that you can come to watch the game. People from these places, and America and Asia, they don't count on it.

Even according to the most optimistic estimates, it would be good to have a thousand outsiders come to watch the game, and Crouch's own estimate is no more than 600 people, even if they each charge a package of 5 Galleons. , is also a drop in the bucket for the cost of hosting the competition.

"It's simple." Lockhart looked confident, "there's an 'Olympics' in the Muggle world, I wonder if you've heard of it? "

Crouch picked up the corners of his eyes: F, you mean the Olympic Games handed down from ancient Greece? Of course I knew that, but wasn't it locked up by the crucified lunatics? "

"It was restored later, at the end of the first century."

"Okay, they've resumed a **** circus, and the craziest lunatic can wear a cinnamon headband, but what does this have to do with the game we're going to have?" Crouch asked again.

For Crouch's remarks, Lockhart has thousands of old grooves in his heart that he wants to spit out, but his professionalism still allows him to maintain the typical poker face of British civil servants.

"In fact, Muggles used to think that hosting the Olympics was a loss

Selling, several cities in the Soviet Union and the United States are still heavily in debt for hosting the Olympic Games. For example, the evil red empire of the Soviet Union has spent 9 billion for this, which is almost 1.5 billion Galleons, which is enough for the people of their country to live frugally for a hundred years, and some cities owe hundreds of millions of dollars for this. (Lockhart frivolously avoided Montreal, Canada and Munich, West Germany), and it took decades of hard work by the people of the city to pay it off, so that in the end no country was willing to lift a stone—until 1984, nine years ago until the Olympics. Since then, more and more countries have been willing to host the Olympics. "

Barty Crouch is a little curious: Steel 500 million Galleons! But I'm more interested in what happened in the 1984 Olympics? "

"To make money, the Los Angeles Olympics made $200 million, or about 34 million Galleons, and it was done without cutting the number of medals very much."

Old Crouch's interest was finally raised: "Details."

Chapter 148 Stealing knowledge from the Muggle world is the source of progress in the wizarding world

It's been said that facts are the best teachers, and it's always been a question for British politicians about where to stand between hypocritical egalitarianism and fake liberalism.

Of course, this has never been a problem for Lockhart and his gang, because they are just lowly state officials, no matter what path the mob...the people choose in the end, they are only responsible for copying and executing them - of course, executing It is up to the civil servants to think for themselves.

However, Mrs Thatcher finally chose to fully privatize the state-owned assets built during the Clement Attlee period. The reality of the complete loss of market competitiveness after private ownership also made these civil servants a little regretful that they had not been able to stop her.

Of course, the main reason is that after the disappearance of these state-run institutions, there are fewer places for civil servants to work, even if there is a little more places for them to retire.

In any case, in this wave of total privatization, the civil servants have learned how to tell those "profound truths" to those "undereducated, in the minds of Only the beer and football mob" understood.

The demonstrative effect of the Los Angeles Olympic Games is very important, and the effect is likely to be far greater than that of the political philosophers who were supported by the United States and the Soviet Union for a thousand times.

The government-run, inefficient Olympics have gone from huge losses to profits after being run privately—what could be more indicative of the new freedom

The correctness of the doctrine?

“…That’s it, if you want to make money, it is nothing more than open source and throttling. In terms of throttling, we can work with Hogsmeade residents to provide homestays instead of newly built hotels, and the venue for competitions can also be used. The Quidditch pitch and the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, and the foreign students who compete in the Hogwarts dormitory - it's still pretty empty, as far as I know."

"We've thought about that for a long time, and we're actually going to implement some of it, but we can't make it too shabby, you understand?" ' Crouch warned.

"By 'shabby,' you mean how far can we reduce costs? ' Lockhart tried to confirm.

Crouch didn't give a shit, but told Lockhart exactly what he had in mind.

"It means to the extent that we won't lose face in front of the Germans. Fudge has promised at the International Confederation of Wizards that Great Britain will do it beautifully for the first Triwizard Tournament after hundreds of years. Bright, set a model for later generations to learn."

"Did he really say that?" Lockhart was a little surprised.

Crouch said with a straight face: "Of course."

No wonder Fudge was so **** off after Cedric's death—the "paradigm" didn't look so good.

"I see." Lockhart tried to make himself look more serious. "In this case, not only can the budget not be reduced, we must also increase investment in auditoriums and accommodation."

So Crouch framed and asked what he cared about most: "So I'm curious to know how you're going to raise money... Of course, I've heard of what you're doing at Hogwarts."

Lockhart was prepared for this, or rather, he was here waiting for Crouch

"It's not complicated, Director, to put it bluntly, it is to commercialize it, or to put it more simply, "sell everything that can be sold"

"…Can you give an example?"

"For example, the right to report, we can auction the right to report live on the spot, and the media with the highest price will get it, with a starting price of 700 Galleons." Lockhart expressed his idea.

Mr. Crouch's mouth opened slightly in surprise, an expression rarely seen even by his personal assistant.

"That's okay?" he asked.

Lockhart thought he was worried that the price would be too high and would make the media back off, so he started explaining it for him.

There is absolutely no problem with U00 Galleons. I heard that the prize prize of the Daily Prophet's lottery is also 700 Galleons. They can fully pay the money. As long as the media compete a little bit, we will give the champion prize money. . "

But this is not what Crouch is worried about: "I mean, wouldn't it be too ugly to eat like this? After all, this kind of entertainment... I mean a once-in-a-century event. If all the media are not allowed to report freely, they will probably be Raise objections."

"They have no reason to object. The competition is funded by the Ministry of Magic, and it uses the wizard's tax from all over the UK. Why do we use taxpayer money to provide free material to those media? When they get news, they can get subscription revenue and Advertising revenue, and even generous rewards from readers, we don’t get anything.”

"It's...that makes sense." Crouch was at a loss for words.

"Not to mention that it is dangerous for these reporters to go deep into the game after entering the game.

In order to take better pictures in some areas of the city, we at the Ministry of Magic have to provide security services for them, which is also a large expense, and they should pay. "

"Yes." Crouch seemed to be persuaded by him. "It's just that the Daily Prophet doesn't cover the whole world."

"The whole world?" Lockhart looked surprised, "Of course, the reporting rights of different regions will be auctioned separately. In northern Europe, media from Sweden, Norway, and Finland can bid, and in western Europe, Italy, France, and Spain will bid. The Germanic and Central European regions have to be developed separately, and Eastern Europe, North Africa, Asia, America...they all speak different languages, right?"

Looking at Barty Crouch's increasingly bizarre eyes, Lockhart quickly made amends: Of course, if the Daily Prophet is willing to pay a higher price to cover all the reporting rights, and then transfer the reporting rights to each region separately It's not impossible to sell to other media, this is a normal business behavior, and we can't stop them, but the price is definitely more than 1,000 Galleons. "

Mr. Crouch seemed taken aback: "Anything else?"

"Of course, the part that we can make a profit is much more than this - for example, the clothing of the contestants, we can sell the right to print the company's trademark on it. We can also prepare some broomsticks at the scene, and companies such as Nimbus, Comet, and Sweep will bid for sponsorship rights. The sponsorship fee is 400 plus uplift.

We can even say to the Bulgarians that there are Greeks who are going to print a yogurt trademark with a cow pattern on Krum, the pride of Bulgaria, and I believe that the Bulgarians will spare no effort to pay a high price to grab Krum's clothes sponsorship rights.

In addition, the billboards in the venue, the VIP seats with the best view in the stands, and the right to watch the entrance ceremony when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang came to Hogwarts, the special guests of the opening ceremony... There are so many things to sell, it shouldn't be difficult to raise 20,000 Galleons. "

Mr. Crouch let out a breath, and said in a tone of praise or sarcasm: "You're a genius, Lockhart."

Not me, but the legendary Jew who commercialized the Olympics, Lockhart said.

"If you agree, I will write a more detailed implementation plan tonight. The one I am giving you now is actually more long-term, so I would like to see more British brands in sponsors, And use this competition as a publicity opportunity to sell British products to the world."

"Fudge will like you to say that." Crouch commented dryly. "Indeed, we can't just rely on trade bans to resist the entry of flying carpets. They have taken the entire Middle East and Asia, and even the Chinese gang like Edgeworth. The old-fashioned flying is starting to tend to lie on the blanket and go up to the Kunlun Mountains."

The use of Apparition for cross-border travel is prohibited because it is too dangerous for long-distance travel, and it is inconvenient for magical institutions to manage.

This is even more the case in Europe, because there are many small countries the size of boogers, so transportation for long distances is a necessity for cross-border travel.

Among these means of transportation, flying carpets have gradually occupied the market all over the world with their excellent comfort, and the status of flying brooms has become more and more embarrassing, which makes people of insight in the UK feel very worried.

The British Ministry of Magic responded by vigorously promoting the Floo network, and hoped that countries would use the fireplace to communicate more.

However, none of the wizarding institutions in the world agreed. Although it is not difficult to communicate the magic of the Floo network with a fireplace, and 2 scoops of Floo powder are not expensive, the Floo powder itself can only be produced in the United Kingdom. Only a fool will hand over his lifeline to the British for safekeeping.

Ever since Floo powder was invented by Ignatius and Will Smith in the 13th century AD

Since then, its manufacture has been strictly controlled by the British.

The only licensed producer in the UK is Fl-Pw, which is headquartered in Diagon Alley and has never been told where its gates are

For hundreds of years, Floo powder has never been reported to be in short supply, which means that it is not difficult to manufacture, nor does it depend on a scarce raw material, and no one knows that it is made by who made it. And its price has remained the same for hundreds of years: two scones a scoop.

So far, there have been many wizards trying to decipher the formula of Floo powder every year, but they have basically been admitted to St. Mungo's Magical Hospital, and no one has succeeded.

Obviously, this is the British Ministry of Magic collecting a "fuel tax". Without this money, the Ministry of Magic's finances may be more strained than it is now.

If wizards from all over the world start to rely on Floo powder and fireplaces to travel, even if the British don't get stuck in their necks, they will be charged a huge traffic tax every year by the British Ministry of Magic using Floo powder. Ghosts are willing to do such stupid things.

Although the society of wizards is relatively loose and international relations are relatively simple, when interests are involved, the intensity of conflict is still no less than that of Muggles, which can be seen from the point of transportation.

It's not hard to understand Lockhart's idea—he wanted to turn the Triwizard Tournament into an export fair, something that could definitely speak to the entire British wizarding world.

"But the price we can pay by ourselves may not be"

After the Uyghurs won the bid, we secretly gave them 15 points of rebate... This is a tax rebate. "Lockhart made up the final piece for him.

Chapter 149 Prison Break

After listening to Lockhart's report, Crouch thought for a whole night, and when he came to the Ministry of Magic the next day, he agreed with Lockhart's plan in principle.

"I have to discuss some details with the minister." He said, "Fudge has a 'priority support list', and he will give priority to a lot of companies that he thinks will help the British wizarding community. "

"I bet all the Malfoys' properties are on that list," Lockhart said casually. "Maybe the list is the Malfoys' property list, and then Fudge added a dozen companies to it."