I, the leader of the esoteric sect, am doing great things in the infinite world!

Since they can create indistinguishable Galleons, wouldn't it be better to take this opportunity to issue a new currency, improve its value, and completely separate themselves from the corrupt Ministry of Magic and Gringotts?

Anyway, Grindelwald didn't think there was any problem.

Li Lin put down his cup, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

"Really? I don't believe it."

Grindelwald's breath hitched. He really wanted to project a dignified image in front of Li Lin, but the problem was that Master Li always managed to quickly ruin his image in the most ingenious way.

Sometimes Grindelwald even wondered what would happen if Dumbledore were to face off against Li Lin.

thump.

Grindelwald tapped his finger on the table, his heterochromatic eyes staring directly at Li Lin: "I hope to hear a reasonable answer, after all, the thirst for knowledge is very important for wizards."

Li Lin stared calmly at Grindelwald: "You should have some money on you, take it out."

Grindelwald paused slightly, and the next second, several gold coins clattered onto the table.

Li Lin took the three gold coins and laid them out in a row.

"The first one is a Galleon issued by Gringotts." This is an unremarkable gold coin, one of the few Galleons minted by Gringotts over the years. After changing hands many times and circulating for a long time, its surface has been somewhat worn and its luster has become dull.

Li Lin picked up the second gold coin, blew on it, and a continuous metallic vibration echoed in his ears.

“These are counterfeit coins we produced. Only half of the original stock has entered the market, but that’s enough to force Gringotts to acknowledge them as counterfeit.”

Then, Grindelwald and Li Lin turned their attention to the last gold coin. Sunlight shone on the surface of the coin, giving it a strange golden-red hue, like a shining, warm sun.

No matter how many times he saw it, Grindelwald was amazed by the strangeness of this currency called the "gold pound".

“Mr. Grindelwald, our counterfeit currency is so realistic that it’s indistinguishable from the real thing, and the quality of our gold pounds far surpasses that of the Galleons. What will happen when gold pounds begin to flood the market in large quantities?”

Grindelwald leaned back in the armchair, lost in thought.

"Isn't it the wizards who come to use our gold pounds?"

"I poked it." Li Lin shook his head.

“The wizards, especially those led by the Twenty-Eight Purebloods, will definitely take the lead in collecting our gold pounds. They will treat them as collectibles rather than as circulating currency.”

Grindelwald's brow furrowed more and more. This seemed like an extremely ridiculous act, but based on his understanding of pure-blood wizards... it really was possible, no, it was bound to happen.

"What will this result in? Simply put, the gold pound will become a collectible, while the Galleon system will continue to exist and become even stronger." Li Lin shrugged. "After all, the Galleon has been a currency used for many years, so why not continue using it?"

Grindelwald pressed his temples: "If we issue large amounts of gold pounds..."

“Then we’ll be the ones who collapse.” Li Lin’s voice was colder than ever before as he clutched the gold pound in his hand. “Why are these currencies so quickly accepted? Because they’re not just fiat currencies; they’re made of gold themselves!”

“So…” Grindelwald’s voice sounded quite conflicted.

“So counterfeiting can’t stop.” Li Lin tossed the gold pound onto the table and tapped the counterfeit coin. “Everything we have now is built on the Galleon system. Gringotts has already acknowledged our counterfeit coins, which means that when a large number of counterfeit coins enter the market, it is the Galleon system itself that will be impacted.”

"There is something ridiculous about the magical world to me: it is small in size, yet it still tries to build a system that is similar to but different from the civilized world."

Yes, the magical world's productivity is limited.

Neither magical items nor those fantastical creatures are actually produced in large quantities.

For example, the Ollivander family, who are about to hold a wand fair, still uphold the tradition of handcrafting wands. Why was Garrick Ollivander able to secure that shop in Diagon Alley and make it the face of the Ollivander family? It's because he is both fast and good at making wands.

Over the years, the prices of every item in the magical world have actually stabilized within a certain range.

When a large amount of Galleon enters the market, it will have an extremely terrible consequence.

Extremely rampant inflation.

Wizards who used Galleons extensively saw their wealth rapidly diminish; Galleons seemed to turn into pebbles until they couldn't even afford a cup of butterbeer.

“This isn’t right… You just said that Galleons are gold, so how could they turn into pebbles?” Grindelwald asked urgently.

"Is gold useful to wizards?" Li Lin raised his eyes and calmly stared at Grindelwald, who was speechless.

Yes, what use is gold to a wizard?

Not to mention that Nicolas Flamel created the Philosopher's Stone, which can turn stones into gold, even a wizard with slightly higher magical power could create a large amount of gold through the Transfiguration Charm. At worst, the entire magical world would just go back to the era of barter.

“But if we do that, the Ministry of Magic’s credibility will be completely destroyed, and Gringotts too…” Grindelwald said almost with a sigh, “The British wizarding community will be plunged into violent turmoil and become a disorganized mess.”

"Not only that."

Li Lin's voice seemed to have become colder than ever before: "In order to restore credibility and reduce the impact, the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts have only one option."

"What choice?"

"Opening up Muggle currency exchange channels will introduce a huge shock into the European market, but they didn't consider that gold is also a general equivalent in the Muggle world. In other words, the turmoil in the Muggle world will be even greater than in the magical world."

Li Lin lowered his eyes, then raised them to look at Grindelwald, who was stunned and speechless: "Congratulations. By then, the Cold War will be over, and World War III will begin."

Grindelwald's voice rose: "Then what about our gold pounds?"

“Mr. Grindelwald, you seem to know little about economics and politics, even though you have seen a lot of things.”

Li Lin hunched his neck and squeezed out a double chin.

"But that's alright, you can leave all of this to me. That's why I suggested you don't issue gold pounds right away, but I don't think you'll completely listen to me... I guess you're already carrying out currency reforms, aren't you?"

Grindelwald remained silent, and he did just that.

“Forget it, there’s only a month left anyway, so it won’t hurt for you to issue gold pounds now.” Li Lin waved his hand and explained casually, “When a large amount of wizarding assets are diluted, if a strong foreign currency circulates at the same time, holders will inevitably run on gold pounds in order to prevent their assets from shrinking, which will exacerbate the economic crisis.”

Just like the Republic of China government in 1948, the gold yuan became completely worthless.

At that time, the original Galleons will be greatly devalued, and wizards may even refuse to accept Galleons, leading to the complete bankruptcy of the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts' credibility.

At that time, the currently prosperous magical world will enter a period of winter.

By then, how many of the twenty-eight pure-blooded Glory factions will still be left?

Li Lin picked up the glass of butterbeer, took a sip, and then changed the subject: "So, that's why I sent you to make contact with the Soviets."

"Well, Mr. Yanayev, you should have met with him by now, right?"

“Genady Ivanovich Yanayev…indeed, he’s a man of great courage among Muggles.” Grindelwald nodded, then suddenly realized something. “You want to save this superpower in this way?”

“Salvation? Not really.” Li Lin stared straight ahead. “But it is certainly much better than Western countries.”

Li Lin looked directly into Grindelwald's eyes, and for a moment Grindelwald felt as if he were being stared at by the sun.

"Think about it, Mr. Grindelwald. You're going to open the window, but which country would feel comfortable letting a wizarding nation be established peacefully? You once predicted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but if you were to actually establish a nation entirely composed of wizards, heh heh..."

Li Lin did not explicitly state the fate of the Wizarding Kingdom, but Grindelwald felt a chill run down his spine.

"Western countries regard wizards as devils and demons, but what did the Soviet Union call you?"

Grindelwald couldn't help but recall how the gaunt man had addressed him when he first met Yanayev.

"Comrade Grindelwald."

96 Professor of Extortion Studies

Hogwarts Castle, Headmaster's Office.

Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk, staring at Minerva McGonagall with surprise.

“Excuse me, could you say that again, Minerva?”

The tall witch seemed somewhat annoyed upon hearing this: "I thought you knew, you are the headmaster, Albus."

As the current headmaster of Hogwarts, you didn't even know there was an extra person on the school's board of directors. Your ability to slack off is truly second to none.

“Actually, I really didn’t know. Lucius has always had his own ideas.” Dumbledore shrugged casually, pulling over a plate of tempting desserts. “How about some sizzling honey candy, Minerva?”

Professor McGonagall clenched her fists involuntarily.

Fortunately, she quickly realized that Dumbledore always had this confident demeanor, and since even the Hogwarts headmaster himself didn't react much, there shouldn't be any problem.

Seeing that Professor McGonagall remained unmoved, Dumbledore quickly popped two more pieces of honeydew into his mouth, his white-bearded cheeks puffing out, and then he floated a few centimeters off his chair.

These magical candies made by Honeydukes can make people float briefly with their feet off the ground when sucked. Rumor has it that Honeydukes may have added some magical animal ingredients to them.

Seeing McGonagall look at him, Dumbledore shifted his position, sat back down in his chair, and mumbled indistinctly:

“Okay, but we can’t guarantee that the new board member will be like Lucius, right?”

Dumbledore swallowed the honey candy in his mouth and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "I think you should be able to offer some opinions, Minerva?"

McGonagall hesitated, fiddling with her fingers. After a moment of silence, she slowly nodded. "Yes, he was an extraordinary wizard, and more importantly, he was very, very rich. I suspect that even Lucius Malfoy would be unable to look him in the eye."

Dumbledore's wise eyes fixed on Minerva McGonagall, then a smile appeared on his lips: "Yes, in any case, his arrival will make things better."

"After all, the appearance of two generations of Dark Lords has already made the magical world as bad as it can get."

Suddenly, heavy footsteps came from outside the door, sounding like a Tiger tank advancing. There was only one person at Hogwarts who could make such footsteps.

Rubeus Hagrid, the half-giant who is also the keykeeper and hunting ground guard at Hogwarts.

“Oh, I’m so sorry to visit you at this hour, Mr. Dumbledore…” Hagrid said breathlessly, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Oh, Professor McGonagall, it’s wonderful to have you here as well.”

“I think Mr. Hagrid must have something on his mind. Why don’t you tell me?” Dumbledore pushed the plate of sizzling honey candies forward again. “Would you like some candy?”

"Oh, thank you, I'm actually quite hungry."

Hagrid reached out and grabbed a handful from the plate, stuffing it into his mouth and crunching loudly. Dumbledore's lips twitched in pain.

This somewhat reckless but kind-hearted half-giant swallowed the dessert in his mouth and quickly explained why he had come to see Dumbledore: "Lucius Malfoy, that wretched old viper, brought another person to Hogwarts. Lucius claims to be the new head of the board, but frankly, I think they're talking nonsense..."