Trade and traderoutes in M-E

[Tuor in Gondolin]

It wouldn't be at all surprising that dwarves were the Swiss
of Middle-earth in clockmaking.

Kings used to snd for our smiths, and reward even the
least skillful most richly. Fathers would beg us to take their sons as
apprentices, and pay us handsomely, especially in food-supplies...
the poorest of us had money to spend and to lend, and leisure to make
beautiful things just for the fun of it, not to speak of the most
marvellous and magical toys, the like of which is not to be found in the
world now-a-days...and the toy market of Dale was the wonder of the
North.

Of course, it also brings to mind Harry Lime's observation about cuckoo
clocks and the Swiss:

"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock