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tolkiens legendarium - Did the Shire import any goods?



We, of course, know that the Shire did export a few goods, such as Longbottom leaf which was at some point found in Orthanc. However, do we know if the Shire also imported any goods and traded with other communities on a regular basis? If so, with whom?


I'm only interested in canon, ie the books and any letters that Tolkien may have written.



Answer



Hobbits of the Shire certainly had dealings with Dwarves on a regular basis; the chapter Shadow of the Past notes:



The ancient East-West Road ran through the Shire to its end at the Grey Havens, and dwarves had always used it on their way to their mines in the Blue Mountains. They were the hobbits' chief source of news from distant parts – if they wanted any: as a rule dwarves said little and hobbits asked no more.



It's also the case that they had economic dealings with these same Dwarves, as we learn in The Quest of Erebor:



You do not know much about the Shire-folk, Glóin. I suppose you think them simple, because they are generous and do not haggle; and think them timid because you never sell them any weapons.




So if the Dwarves never sell them weapons what do they sell them? A note in The Peoples of Middle-earth answers this:



You don't know much about those folk, Thorin. If you think them all that simple because they pay you whatever you ask for your bits of iron and don't bargain hard like some Men, you're mistaken.



Similar is also referenced in the long essay Of Dwarves and Men:



Thus there grew up in those regions the economy, later characteristic of the dealings of Dwarves and Men (including Hobbits): Men became the chief providers of food, as herdsmen, shepherds, and land-tillers, which the Dwarves exchanged for work as builders, roadmakers, miners, and the makers of things of craft, from useful tools to weapons and arms and many other things of great cost and skill.



This obviously paints an economic picture which is otherwise barely even touched on. But yet it's obviously there: Dwarves criss-crossing the Shire on their travels and exchanging work and tools for food on a regular basis.



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