Hermione, join me as Minister of Magic!

In this official document report, Lockhart recorded all the things he was going to do in Hogsmeade, and strictly followed the views and theories of structural realism, explained and explained what he was going to do. illustrate.

Don't ask why Lockhart is clearly a rationalist British school, but he has no idea about the structure.

Constructive realism knows so well.

In fact, after owning the Ravenclaw crown, no matter whether his boss is realist, liberal or constructivist, Lockhart can find a way to make himself an "expert" in that field in a day

Sure enough, Barty Crouch admired Lockhart's official document very much, no matter its format or the theories cited when explaining the content.

If it wasn't for the content, he even wanted to send this official document down, so that all the staff of the Department of International Magical Cooperation could learn from it, because this is the "model document" in his mind

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

Intermediate trade'? "Export Fair"? And "enchantment" of Muggle goods?"

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

Chapter 140 Seven Thoughts from the Olympics

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

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 an intermediate processing market, but we will have to wait for the Triwizard Tournament to test the water before deciding whether to implement it." Lockhart said cautiously, "If possible, I would like to Step by step first, do what can be done first.”

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

With the recent deepening of understanding of these pure-blood families, Lockhart gradually discovered that although not all of the so-called ancient families in the "Holy 28 Pure-Bloods" have family backgrounds, they definitely have connections. Yes, that even includes the Longbottoms and Weasleys.

People like Marchban, who are not fake to the Malfoy family, have been close friends with Mrs. Longbottom for many years.And 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 old 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 cannot expect every old wizard to be like Dumbledore Be positive about reform.

According to the normal rhythm, as a half-blood wizard with few contacts, if Lockhart wants to rise to the top, he has to stay in the Ministry of Magic for four or fifty years.When the old people are tired of all this and decide to retire voluntarily, he may only get a chance.

That's why Luo Haji didn't hesitate to use the opportunity of being a teacher at Hogwarts to win Deng

Bullido's support, it seems to take an extra year, but it can save him 20 years of struggle.

But now, as long as he doesn't cope well, the 20 years he has fought for is very likely to be beaten back by Barty Crouch for five years.

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

Crouch did not agree right away: "But I must first remind you that it is almost impossible to make money from this kind of entertainment. This is destined to be a losing business."

"Losing money?" Lockhart didn't wait for Crouch's surprise, but he was a little surprised first, "How could 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 hosting the Triwizard Tournament for Lockhart on the spot.

"The championship bonus is one thousand galleons. This cannot be saved, and it will look shabby if it is lower. It is a huge sum of money to rent an adult dragon from Romania. They will pay 300 galleons for an appearance fee. We have to prepare three dragons. It was nine hundred; the mermaids asked us for metal weapons, but I rejected them, saying that considering the rust, I could only give them some stone weapons, but this would also cost some processing fees; the Sphinx imported from Greece The money is not a small sum, we have to buy the rest of the dangerous animals from the demon hunters, and if they need to be captured alive, their asking price will be even higher.

In addition to the money that cannot be saved, the money for receiving foreign guests, the money for building stands, and the money for renting equipment are also difficult to deduct in numbers... Of course, the most expensive thing is the cost of hiring professional referees and other game maintenance personnel, and security personnel. Our Ministry of Magic will do it ourselves, otherwise the budget is really not enough. "

After listening to Crouch's report, Lockhart roughly calculated a number in his mind

"In other words, it is about 20 times the bonus, which is about [-] Galleons.

This figure was not large. Compared with some medium-sized Muggle competitions known to Lockhart, the cost of hosting was only 20 times the prize money, which was quite frugal.

"Yeah, that's about the same number. The maintenance cost of the Ministry of Magic is less than 30 yuan a year, which is a lot of money... That's why I opposed holding the Triwizard Tournament at the beginning. First, it was too dangerous. The second is that it is too heavy for financial pressure.”

Luohaif Temple thought the same thing, if there is a country government on the Muggle side that wants to use one-seventh of the year's tax revenue to hold a sports meeting, then the head of the government will definitely be kicked out of power by the people

This is how the wizarding world can do this kind of thing—because the production of food and utensils is highly self-sufficient, the overall demand for currency by wizards is not as great as that of 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 waste of people and money, and the process of the game is meaningless. Once a dangerous accident such as death occurs, they have to bear the responsibility for it.

It's just that he has never said these things to outsiders, and in a well-behaved style, he only reminded Fudge tactfully of the budget issue, and did not publicly discourage him from stepping down.

And Fudge's response was even more brilliant—he didn't say no, he didn't say no, he didn't say a solution, he just said "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 requests based on the actual situation, and then he could use these specific requests to ask the minister for money.

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

"How do you plan to solve the fundraising issue?" Barty Crouch asked suspiciously, "You can never earn back from ticket money."

Of course he has a reason for daring to make such an assertion—the wizard population in Britain is not large, and there are only 6000 wizards in [-] million people, and the ratio is similar in other countries

In other words, the entire European Union may only have about 12 wizards. Even if you count the population of wizards in Russia, North Africa and the British colonies, it should not exceed [-]. It is estimated that those who can come to watch the game Local people, but they do not count on them in America and Asia.

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

"It's simple." Lockhart seemed confident, "There is an "Olympics" in the Muggle world, have you heard of it? "

The corner of Crouch's eyes twitched: I mean the Olympic Games handed down from ancient Greece?Of course I know that, but wasn’t it imprisoned by those lunatics who crucified the corpse? "

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

"Okay, they've brought back a nude parade, and the craziest can wear a laurel wreath, but what does that have to do with the race we're running?" Crouch asked again.

For Crouch's words, Lockhart wanted to spit out thousands of old troughs in his heart, but his professionalism still allowed him to maintain the typical poker face of British civil servants.

"In fact, the Muggles used to think that hosting the Olympics was a bad idea.

Selling, several cities in the Soviet Union and the United States are still heavily in debt because of hosting the Olympic Games.For example, the evil red empire of the Soviet Union spent 90 billion, or almost 15 billion Galleons, which is enough for the people of their country to live frugally for 100 years, and some cities owed hundreds of millions of dollars because of this. Debts (Lockhart frivolously avoided Montreal, Canada, and Munich, West Germany) took decades of hard work by the people of the city to pay off, so that in the end no country was willing to lift stones - until 1984, that is, nine years ago Until the Olympics.Since then, more and more countries are willing to host the Olympics. "

Barty Crouch was a little curious: 5 million galleons of steel!But I'm more interested in what happened in the 1984 Olympics? "

"The money, the Los Angeles Games made $2 million, that's almost thirty-four million galleons, and that was done without cutting down on the number of medals much."

Old Crouch's interest was finally brought up: "Details."

Chapter 140 Eight Stealing knowledge from the Muggle world is the source of progress in the wizarding world

People say that facts are the best teachers. For British politicians, how to stand between hypocritical egalitarianism and fake liberalism has always been a question.

Of course, this has never been a problem for Lockhart and his group, because they are just lowly state organs. No matter what route the mob...the people choose in the end, they are just responsible for copying and implementing-of course, implementing It is up to civil servants to figure out the method.

However, Mrs. Thatcher finally chose to fully privatize the state-owned assets built during the Clement Attlee period. This cannot but be said to be a tragedy of socialism. The reality of the complete loss of market competitiveness after private ownership also made these civil servants a little bit regretful that they could not stop her at the beginning.

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 the places for them to retire increase a little bit.

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

Among them, the demonstrative effect of the Los Angeles Olympics has contributed greatly, and the effect is likely to be much higher than that of the political philosophers supported by the United States and the Soviet Union who have debated a thousand times.

The inefficient Olympic Games, run by the government, turned from a huge loss to a profit after being operated privately. What could be more indicative of the new freedom?

What about the correctness of doctrine?

"...That's it. If you want to make money, you need to increase income and reduce expenditure. In terms of reducing expenditure, we can cooperate with Hogsmeade residents to provide homestays instead of building new hotels, and the venue for competitions can also be used. The Quidditch pitches and the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, and the foreign students participating in the competition are arranged into the Hogwarts dormitories - as far as I know, it is still very empty."

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

"What do you mean by "shabby" we can reduce the cost to what extent? ' Lockhart tried to confirm.

Crouch didn't play tricks, but told Lockhart very precisely what standards he had in mind.

"It means that we will not lose face in front of the Germans. Fudge has promised at the International Federation of Wizards that Great Britain will definitely hold the first Triwizard Tournament after hundreds of years. Liang, set an example for the latecomers to learn from."

"He really said that?" Lockhart was a little surprised.

Crouch straightened his face: "Of course."

No wonder Fudge was so distraught after Cedric died—it seemed that this "model" was not so good.

"I understand." Lockhart tried his best to look serious, "Since this is the case, not only can't the budget be reduced, but we also need to increase investment in audience seats and accommodation."

So Crouch asked him what he was most concerned about: "So I really want to know how you plan to raise funds...Of course, I have also heard about what you did at Hogwarts."

Lockhart has long been prepared for this, or in other words, he is waiting here for Crouch

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

"...can you give me an example?"

"For example, the right to report, we can auction the right to conduct live reports on the spot, and the media with the highest bid will get it. The starting price is 700 galleons." Lockhart said his idea.

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

"That's okay too?" he asked.

Lockhart thought he was worried that the asking price would be too high and the media would be discouraged, so he began to explain to him.

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

But that's not what Crouch is worried about: "I mean, won'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 may Raise objections."

"They have no reason to object. The competition is funded by the Ministry of Magic, and it is also taxed by wizards all over the UK. Why do we use taxpayers' money to provide free material to those media? After they get the news, they can get subscription income and Advertising revenue, and even generous readers will tip us, but we get nothing."

"This... makes sense." Crouch was at a loss for words.

"Not to mention that after entering the game site, these reporters must go deep and it is more dangerous

In order to take better photos in some areas of the area, our Ministry of Magic has to provide them with security services, which is also a large expense, and they should pay it. "

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

"The whole world?" Lockhart made a look of surprise, "Of course the rights to report in different regions will be auctioned separately. Northern Europe can be bid by Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish media, and Western Europe will be bid by Italian, French, and Spanish media. The Germanic and Central European regions have to be developed separately, and Eastern Europe, North Africa, Asia, America...they all use different languages, right?"

Seeing Barty Crouch's more and more strange eyes, Lockhart hastened to remedy: 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 of each region to It's not impossible to sell to other media, this is a normal business practice, and we can't stop them, but the price must be more than a mere 1000 Galleons. "

Mr. Crouch seemed shocked: "Any more?"

"Of course, the parts we can make profit are far more than these - for example, the clothing of the contestants, we can sell the right to print the company's logo on it. We can also prepare some flying broomsticks on the spot, and companies such as Nimbus, Comet, and Sweep can bid for sponsorship rights , The sponsorship fee is 400 plus uplift.

We can even tell the Bulgarians that some Greeks are going to print a cow-patterned yogurt trademark on Krum, the pride of Bulgaria. sponsorship rights.

In addition, the billboards in the venue, the VIP seats with the best view in the stands, and Beauxbaton and Durmstrang's entrance ceremony viewing rights when they came to Hogwarts, the special guests of the opening ceremony... There are so many things that can be sold, it shouldn't be difficult to raise [-] Galleons. "

Mr. Crouch took a long breath, and said in a tone of praise or sarcasm: "You are really a ghost, Lockhart."

Not my genius, but the legendary Jew who commercialized the Olympics, Lockhart thought.

"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 hope to see more British brands among the sponsors. And use this competition as a promotional opportunity to sell British products to the world."

"Fudge will like your statement." Crouch commented dryly. "It's true that we can't just rely on trade bans to resist the entry of flying carpets. They have captured the entire Middle East and Asia. Even the Chinese gang like Yujian The old-fashioned flying is beginning to lean on the blanket and go to Kunlun Mountain."

Because it is too dangerous to use apparation for long-distance travel, and it is not convenient for the management of magical institutions in various countries, cross-border travel with apparation is prohibited.

This is especially true in Europe, because there are so many small countries as big as boogers, so long-distance transportation is a necessity for cross-border travel.

Among these means of transportation, the flying carpet has gradually occupied the global market due to its excellent comfort, while the status of the flying broom is becoming more and more embarrassing, which makes British people of insight feel worried.

The British Ministry of Magic's response was to promote the Floo Network and hope that countries will use fireplaces to communicate more.

However, none of the wizarding institutions in various countries agreed—although it is not difficult to communicate the magic of the Floo network with a fireplace, and two Sickles and a spoonful of Floo powder are not expensive, but Floo powder itself can only be produced in the UK Only a fool would give his lifeline to the British for safekeeping.

Since Floo powder was invented by Ignatius Jay Will Smith in the 13th century AD

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

The only licensed manufacturer in the UK is Fl-Pw, which is headquartered in Diagon Alley and no one has ever been able to say where its gates are

Floo powder has never been reported to be in shortage for hundreds of years, which means that its manufacture is not difficult, does not depend on a scarce raw material, and no one knows that it is made of who made it.And its price has remained the same for hundreds of years: two Sickles a scoop.

So far, there have been quite a few wizards trying to crack the formula of Floo powder every year, but they basically all entered St. Mungo's Magical Hospital, and none of them succeeded.

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

If wizards from all over the world start to rely on Floo powder and fireplaces for travel, even if the British don’t get stuck on their necks, they will still be charged a huge amount of traffic tax by the British Ministry of Magic every year with Floo powder, and the devil is willing to do such a stupid thing.

Although the society of the wizarding world is relatively loose, and the international relations are relatively simple, when it comes to interests, the intensity of the conflict is still not inferior to that of Muggles, and it can be seen from the point of transportation.

Lockhart's idea is not difficult to understand—he wants to turn the Triwizard Tournament into an export fair, so that he can definitely explain to the entire British wizarding world.

"But the price that our own people can pay may not be"

After the Wuyemen won the bid, we secretly gave them a 15-point refund... This is the export tax rebate. ’ Lockhart added the last piece for him.

Chapter 140 IX Prison Break

Crouch thought about it all night after listening to Lockhart's report, and when he came to the Ministry of Magic the next day, he agreed in principle to Lockhart's plan.

"I have to discuss some details with the minister." He said, "Fudge has a "key support list", and he will give priority to policies for many companies that he thinks will help the British magic community. "

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