Quote:
Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
That brings me to think, by the way, once again how important economically the year of the Dragon's fall was. The Kingdom under the Mountain was reestablished, the goblins were diminished, the path through all the Mirkwood was renewed and the way to Eriador was open, which was just something tremendous. Actually, at that time the East (Dale and Erebor) was far more economically prosperring than the West, which suddenly fell in the rank as total wilderness (if Arnor had been there still, things would have been different).
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Lots of good points made on this interesting topic.
Overall, it seems to me that at the Time of the War of the Ring, it was indeed the lands east of the Misty Mountains which saw the most commercial trade among different communities, but it seems that the trading partners were mostly geographically fairly near one another.
The Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, Men of Dale, and Elves of Mirkwood certainly had a thriving commerce together, and the Dwarves of the Iron Hills were probably in on it as well.
Lórien appears to be almost entirely self-sufficient, with what trade they did have most likely being with Rivendell.
Gondor and Rohan would have mainly conducted trade business with one another, as has been said, with the Rohirrim trading horses for things such as weapons and armour.
In Eridaor, the only likely permanent trade partners would have been the Shire and Bree.
Travellers through those areas using the East-West Road would have bought food and pipe-weed there, but no active exportation by the hobbits seems to have been conducted beyond that, not even with the Rangers or Dwarves of the Blue Mountains. Merry was quite surprised at the sight of the Hornblower pipe-weed at Isengard, saying he hadn't known it 'went so far abroad'.
Knowing the Rangers, they might have grown some pipe-weed themselves for their own uses, and probably knew places where it grew in the wild.
Arnor seems to have been the centre of any large scale trade between Eriador and the South. Once it was no more, commercial intercourse between the regions appears to have been almost nil.