Education in Middle Earth

[Rumil]

I think the Shire (and Bree?) exported a fair bit of food to the Dwarves, who weren't intertested in, or suited to, farming. No doubt this was traded for metalwork, coinage etc. remember the silver pennies?

I guess the main customers must have been the Blue Mountain dwarves, though dwarves from 'the east' (ie Erebor and the Iron Hills) were passing through Bree, it seems a long way to transport ordinary foodstuffs (salted meat etc probably so as to be non-perishable) when they could get supplies through Esgaroth.