Quote:
Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
Thanks to Mr. Baggins' thorough report of what the various Dwarves complained about, such as barrels smelling of apples, and other hints, such as some barrels being used for butter, we know that there was more than just booze. We also know that the Elven King did very often go out to ride and hunt, at least until spiders made such business too risky. What I am more curious about is what did the Elves send to the Men of Lake-Town in return, aside from burglars and exiles.
Speaking of Woodland Realm, here we have again the curious occurance - and I belive there were some threads in the past about it, but let me just mention it here - of the remark that the Wood-Elves could get wine only by trade, because "no wine grew in these parts", but they had to get it from the Men, or from their kin in the South. For the purpose of this thread: could we argue that it is supposed to mean Lórien, therefore it would imply that at least some of Lórien's soil was used for that? (Of course, the option number 2 is that it refers to some unmarked, unknown Elven enclave; or Edhellond of old, although that would be a bit outdated already by the time of the Hobbit.)
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Tolkien was always a bit vague when it came to commerce. I sympathize with him in that he was an English and linguistics professor and most likely avoided economics and assorted mathematical quotients, ratios and percentages like the plague.
Given the Wood Elves fay characteristics in
The Hobbit, with all the feasting and disappearing and such, there is very little to support them being a very reliable trade partner; that they sent the barrels back to Laketown empty indicates not much of an established bartering system, at least not by that method.
It was rather like the Shire, with their established postal system, mayors, bounders and shiriffs. Somebody had to pay these folks to beat the bounds and drop off party invitations; therefore, there must have been some sort of institutionalized hearth tax. But there was no mention of the tax collector, Gilden Moneybanks, knocking on the quaint round doors of Hobbit-holes to exact quarterly fees.