Gondor, the Shire and the Blue Mountains
Tolkien did briefly comment on the economic situations of Gondor, the Shire and the Blue Mountains in a 25th September 1954 letter to Naomi Mitchison:
Gondor has sufficient 'townlands' and fiefs with a good water and road approach tp provide for its population; and clearly has many industries though these are hardly alluded to. The Shire is placed in a water and mountain situation and a distance from the sea and a latitude that would give it a natural fertility, quite apart from the stated fact that it was a well-tended region when they took it over (no doubt with a good deal of older arts and crafts). The Shire-hobbits have no very great need of metals, but the Dwarfs are agents; and in the east of the Mountains of Lune are some of their mines (as shown in the earlier legends): no doubt the reason, or one of them, for their often crossing the Shire.
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