Arcane Topic Warning: Part the Third

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Certainly they had commerce- but to the Dwarves the Shire-folk were merely "food-growers," which suggests the nature of the commerce, and fits with what is told in 'Of Dwarves and Men.' It was also said somewhere, IIRC, that hobbits would at times employ Dwarves for road-work and to repair the Brandywine Bridge, though I can't find it at the moment. Either there was a barter-for work arrangement, or the Dwarves bought their provisions with coin.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Certainly they had commerce- but to the Dwarves the Shire-folk were merely "food-growers," which suggests the nature of the commerce, and fits with what is told in 'Of Dwarves and Men.' It was also said somewhere, IIRC, that hobbits would at times employ Dwarves for road-work and to repair the Brandywine Bridge, though I can't find it at the moment. Either there was a barter-for work arrangement, or the Dwarves bought their provisions with coin.

I wonder if part of the reason why the dwarves rather disdained the hobbits is because the hobbits were incapable of performing the traditional "food and military service" in exchange for "goods and luxuries" that the dwarves seemed to prefer. That might be why not selling weapons was a bit of a sore point.

Originally Posted by Zigûr

In regards to trade between Hobbits and Dwarves, I wonder if the Dwarves were more buyers or sellers. It seems to me that the Hobbits were accomplished enough with the simple machinery they used and the construction of their own dwellings; and that the primary produce of value to the Dwarves would have been food, pipe-weed and the like. One can perhaps imagine them selling to the Men of Dale in the East and buying from the Hobbits in the West. I'm no economist though so I personally can't speculate too much.

Food would not be that useful in transcontinental trade because it would spoil.

This is something that has always bothered me in regards to Tolkien's concept of the dwarves is their reluctance to do their own food gathering. To say this is a profound weakness (almost to the point of lethality) is hardly an understatement. In its heyday when their kingdom stretched up and down the Misty Mountains the dwarves must have had some native food gathering ability or they would not have been able to sustain such an enterprise.

I think Thorin's comment about how during the height of the Kingdom Under the Mountain how the dwarves never bothered to grow or hunt food for themselves has to be interpreted in light of the fact that Erebor was a small geographical area and there were Men living literally outside the front door to do the food growing.

For a larger geographic area such utter dependence on outsiders to obtain food seems pretty unworkable from a logistical standpoint, especially if, as I'm sure had to be the case during the height of Longbeard power, there were holds and settlements of dwarves scattered up and down the Misty and Grey Mountains. It is quite likely that not all of them would have had ready access to human farmers.

How, for example, were the Iron Hills fed? There were always dwarves who lived there and during the Third Age, at least, it would seem that there were no friendly Men nearby to grow food for them.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

In its heyday when their kingdom stretched up and down the Misty Mountains the dwarves must have had some native food gathering ability or they would not have been able to sustain such an enterprise.

At least in the First Age, Mîm the Petty-dwarf was knowledgeable enough about food in the wild to sustain himself and his sons, and presumably his knowledge derived from collected wisdom on that score from his people. He even knew about the breadlike roots that were unknown to Elves.

Perhaps the founders of Moria relied on such techniques for survival, but as they became more numerous and powerful, decided their time was better spent in other matters.

I think that the greatest settlements of Dwarves might have gotten the majority of their food from other local races, but the more isolated or smaller(as Mîm demonstrates) might have been more likely to fend for themselves.