Among them were more than a dozen brand-new Zenit SLR cameras, seven Ural motorcycles in nearly new condition, and a whole unopened crate of military binoculars.
There were even several complete sets of silver cutlery. Judging by the workmanship, they must have been heirlooms from noble families in Tsarist Russia, yet their descendants had now traded them for a few dozen pairs of nylon socks and two dozen pairs of cotton underwear.
After Gerald sold off the cameras, motorcycles, and fur coats he had brought back from the Soviet Union in London, he tallied up the accounts.
His assets had instantly surpassed eighty thousand dollars.
What did eighty thousand dollars mean in 1990?
An ordinary British worker in the Muggle World earned barely over ten thousand pounds a year, yet in just a few days, he had earned a sum an ordinary person could not save in several years even without spending anything on food or drink.
Then Gerald made an immediate decision.
He would put his plans for Greece aside for now and throw himself wholeheartedly into this historic opportunity.
The Soviet Union would collapse at the end of next year. The year and more before that was the best window for trading, and once he missed it, it would never come again.
Once the Soviet Union dissolved, exchange rates in the various countries would gradually stabilize and border controls would tighten again, rapidly wiping out the room for such enormous profits.
He had to earn enough money before that window closed so that he would never have to worry about money again, whether in the Wizarding World or the Muggle World.
And Grandpa Henry's family would no longer have to work so hard either.
With that in mind, Gerald first contacted Lupin through Floo Powder.
Lupin had just