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.

Xie Ling let out a long breath.

This is actually not a secret. He just feels that the real reason is difficult to explain to others, especially to students who have not yet entered 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 the Mianlong Society.

However, Daphne, Murray and others had been working hard for him since they established the Sleeping Dragon Society. In addition to the previous incident with Eleanor, and now with Hermione, he didn't want to cause any misunderstandings that would disappoint the girls.

"Okay, I'll try to explain it to you," Sherin said in a deep voice.

"The British wizarding world has actually been standing still since this century, and the entire social development has almost stagnated. Have you ever thought about the reason?" Xie Ling asked.

"This..." Daphne said uncertainly: "Is it because of the bureaucracy and official corruption in the Ministry of Magic? Or is it because of Minister Fudge's weakness and incompetence in governing?"

"No," Murray said, "I think what Schelling meant is that class solidification and knowledge monopoly have caused magic to lose the opportunity to innovate."

"You are actually all right," Xie Ling nodded, but said, "But you didn't hit the point."

"Whether it's the Ministry of Magic's various unfair regulations, the loss of talent caused by class solidification, or the academic barriers formed by knowledge monopoly, these are indeed prerequisites for the development of the magical society, but they are not the driving force for the magical society to innovate and develop."

“Development actually needs to be driven by a certain supply and demand relationship.”

"To give you an easy-to-understand analogy, the most common means of transportation in the wizarding world is a broomstick, right?" Sherin continued, "But have you ever thought that a broomstick is not necessarily the best means of transportation?"

"What do you mean?" This time, several girls were interested and listened attentively.

"Broomsticks involve a huge chain of interests. In order to maintain their sense of superiority in class, wealthy and powerful wizards have kept the price of broomsticks high by firmly controlling productivity, forcing wizards from ordinary families to work hard and save money, and finally spend a large amount of their savings to buy a broomstick. By that time, broomsticks often have various upgraded versions with more functions, faster speeds, and more stable performance. Isn't that right?"

Several girls nodded.

"In this situation, as market demand far outstrips supply, people can only blindly pursue a broomstick they can afford. Broomstick manufacturers are obsessed with making broomsticks more exquisite and faster in order to grab a larger market share in the competition."

“Human innovation is driven by demand. Without sufficient demand, there will not be enough potential benefits, and it will be difficult for anyone to invest their energy, time and money to research in another direction and innovate.”

"Let's imagine another possibility..." Xie Ling talked eloquently, "If one day, the class system is broken, or the confidential knowledge of making flying brooms is no longer monopolized, the price of flying brooms begins to become popular, and almost all wizards can afford a high-quality flying broom. At this time, the gap between the rich and the poor will be narrowed. What do you think will happen?"

"It's probably like food," Murray adjusted her black-framed glasses and showed her scholarly spirit of studying history. "When the whole society gets rid of famine and the predicament of insufficient food production, people will start to look for new needs. In other words, needs will start to upgrade, slowly changing from needs of survival value to needs of emotional value."

"Yes, take the flying broom as an example. In order to regain a sense of class superiority, or to find a new way to make money, some people are willing to invest a lot of money in research. Maybe one day, a new means of transportation will appear, and it may even completely replace the flying broom."

"The crux of the problem lies here—" Xie Lin said, "Most of the wizarding world's wealth is in the hands of pure-blood families. Even if ordinary wizards and common people have excellent ideas, they don't have enough resources to realize them, not to mention that most of the monopolized industries involve various knowledge and techniques that are considered family secrets. Without these knowledge and techniques accumulated over hundreds of years of inheritance as a foundation, it would take at least decades for ordinary wizards to research all of them on their own."

What Schelling was actually talking about was the basic knowledge of economics and sociology in the Muggle world. Although it was just basic knowledge, it was sufficient for the wizarding society whose financial and monetary system was still linked to precious metals.

Several girls opened their mouths wide, stunned. "Well, although I don't understand it very clearly, what role did Muggle wizards play in this?" Daphne asked persistently.

"Like I said, innovation and development are driven by demand. Only when the gap between different classes - whether pure-blood, half-blood or Muggle - is narrowed to a certain extent, will there be an opportunity for innovation and reform, especially when the innovation is enough to bring about revolutionary changes." Sherin explained patiently, "So, we can't give up on Muggle wizards. The promotion of new magic requires the participation of the whole society."

"In fact, I have another idea," Sherin said, "Muggle wizards have been raised with Muggle education since childhood. 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 inspiration."

"I still say that the innovation of the wizarding world requires the joint efforts of every wizard. Every talent is precious, and discrimination based on bloodline will ultimately only lead to the loss and waste of talent," Xie Ling concluded.

"Well, you've passed." Daphne smiled mischievously, "We believe that your decision to win over Muggle wizards has nothing to do with Granger, so you don't have to come up with another long speech later."

Phew, I finally passed.

Xie Lin shook his head and said, "Let's not talk about this anymore. Is there any recent progress in the Mianlong Society that you need to report to me?"

"Susan asked me to pass on some information - Peter Pettigrew has contacted the Silver Spear Organization and successfully joined the Bounty Hunter Guild. He will go to a Middle Eastern country mired in war and civil strife for training in the near future." Daphne said.

"Okay, I got it. Anything else?" Xie Ling said casually.

"The three heads of the vassal families of the Selwyn and Yaxley families - the Bletchley, Quigley and Cadwallader families - all formally signed a magical contract yesterday to swear allegiance to you, and have sent the contract documents to you. Would you like to take a look?" After saying that, Daphne took out a stack of parchment from her pocket, which emitted a faint magical fluctuation.

"No need. I'm at ease with you doing the work." Looking at the densely written contract clauses on the document, Xie Lin said softly with some heartache: "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, his absolutely trusted girlfriend, to share the burden with him.

"There is one more thing. After we received Cadwallader's letter of surrender, Urig Cadwallader, a sixth-year student who is still studying in Hufflepuff, has joined the Order of the Sleeping Dragon through Susan under the instructions of his family."

"He is a Chaser of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and is very prestigious in Hufflepuff House. Joining with him is his best friend, Sharpy, who is also the substitute seeker of the Quidditch team. I have arranged for the two of them to join the Dragon Eye Team that Susan is in charge of. They will share the intelligence work with Susan and will be responsible for recruiting senior Hufflepuff students to join the Sleeping Dragon Society."

"Well done." Xie Lin praised, "But we still need to examine the abilities and loyalty of new members more carefully."

Among the three houses of Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, Slytherin is needless to say, and Ravenclaw has Zhang Qiu. Only the senior students of Hufflepuff have always been a difficult area for the Sleeping Dragon Society to penetrate. Now with the addition of two new members, this vacancy has been filled.

"There is no problem with Cadwallader's loyalty. This is already included in the magic contract signed by their family head. If Yurig does something that harms the organization, it will have serious consequences for his entire family." After saying this, she turned her gaze to Murray. "That's about it. I have nothing else to say."

Murray said, "Xellin, I have gathered the right members to establish two special project teams for the black Bowtruckle and active storage fluid you gave me. They officially started their respective research work last night."

"Well, we should raise the priority of researching the black bowtruckle. If this thing is successfully researched, it will greatly improve the safety of the members of the Sleeping Dragon Society."

"Ok, I see."

(End of this chapter)