Transfiguration and Economics

(cross-posted to hp_essays)

I’ve been pondering the limits of Transfiguration. There must be some; monetary poverty (a là Weasley) wouldn’t be so significant if it was possible to meet all material needs through magic.

( Legal Limits )

( Material Goods )

( Gold )

Basically I’m concluding that Transfiguration into certain items requires varying levels of various magical skills, some of which are rare enough to make those items highly priced in the economy. There is presumably something about gold (and silver and bronze) that makes it nearly impossible to create in this way.

However, I’m not at all sure how these restrictions arise. The physicist in me is thinking along the lines of some property of the structure of the basic material, or of some magical property that Muggle physics can’t detect. I suppose it depends on how Transfiguration works. Does anyone know of any good theories on that?