Vielä löytyi
hienoa pohdintaa Konnun talouselämästä ja Reppulin suvun aiheuttamista häiriöistä siihen. Öjevind Lång
kirjoittaa lainaa toisen kirjoittajan tekstiä (23.9.1999):
----
Some thoughts on the Shire economy.
I apologise for the absence of precise quotations and any inaccuracies in my
recollections.
1) The Shire is primarily a nation of food-growers. It was chosen as the
site of a colony of Hobbits from the Bree-land because of its unusual
fertility, exploited in times past by the Kings of Arnor. Notable farmers
and landowners include Mr. Maggot, Tom Cotton and Paladin Took. A variety of
crops were grown: wheat (stored in granaries such as the Grange at Hobbiton,
and ground in mills such as the water-mill owned by the Sandymans/men),
mushrooms (a much desired commodity), potatoes, barley (for beer) and vines
are some of those mentioned or implied by the text. Hobbits also kept pigs,
chickens and cows (all implied by the contents of Bilbo's larder in The
Hobbit), and while some hobbits such as Sam knew how to prepare their own
meat, others (like Bilbo) had theirs delivered ready to cook from the
butcher's.
A significant non-essential but popular crop is of course 'pipe-weed',
largely grown in the Southfarthing. This resource played a significant part
in the developing instability of the Shire economy (see 6 below).
2) Although there were quarries at Scary, quarrying and mining for materials
does not seem to have been much practised, except as a consequence of the
excavation of smials. Hobbits had little knowledge of and limited interest
in machinery. They had blacksmiths
to shoe ponies and carry out similar work essential to a largely agrarian
society (refer to The Shadow Of The Past for some evidence); they understood
the forge bellows. They had some
trading contacts with Dwarves, and probably gained much of their worked and
unworked metal from this source.
They also had carpenters to make furniture and weavers, fullers and
tailors for textiles. This must have been at the 'cottage industry' level
(hand-looms were in use, for example). They also had
tanners to provide leather (the Marish hobbits wore boots in muddy weather,
and it could be used for buttons and other small but useful articles;
moreover, the Red Book was bound in leather). Many of the Gamgees were
ropers.
3) 'Service' industries include the postal service, the Shiriffs and
gardeners. There were few public officials, and those that existed seem
largely to have been hereditary offices, such as the Thain
and the Master of Buckland. The Mayor of Michel Delving was elected at the
Free Fair on the White Downs every seven years: his duties were not arduous.
There were numerous inns.
4) Miscellaneous. Basket-weaving (for waste-paper baskets), paper-making
(from wood shavings?), some means of obtaining ink (toadstools?).
5) Despite the relative simplicity of this system, which could fairly easily
be run on a subsistence basis or through payment in kind, there exists the
complication of the money economy. This complication manifests itself
primarily in the person of Mr. Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit whose sole purpose in
life as revealed through the Red Book is to consume. He appears to have no
job, is not a landowner as far as we know, and at the time of Gandalf's
visit in The Hobbit seems to be living off the remnants of his parents'
fortunes. It would seem that the money economy was brought in by Tolkien to
explain this anomalous position. However, this creates a further problem.
Hobbits do not appear to have minted money, since this would require a mint
and a supply of some suitable metal (gold and silver are recorded, but the
high value of the silver coinage in Bree, a town with more commercial links
to the outside world, suggests that copper coins were also used). Therefore
they presumably obtained coinage in trade with Dwarves. Large landowners,
such as the Tooks, will have possessed a greater surplus of foodstuffs and
therefore will have obtained the most money in return, thus accounting for
Belladonna Took's sizeable dowry (which Bungo dipped into to finance the
excavation of Bag End). Lesser landowners, among whom we may number the
Bagginses (who once had their own 'folk-land'), will have profited to a
lesser degree. The advantages of the money economy are great, and will have
facilitated the development of service industries especially (try buying a
pint with a sackful of potatoes!). However, the influx of precious metals
was probably small (witness the surreptitious acquisition of the silver
spoons by Lobelia Sackville-Baggins).
6) What then will have been the result of the sudden return of Bilbo
Baggins, gentleman of leisure, bearing two chests of precious metals and a
share (later charitably distributed) of ill-gotten troll treasure? Both
Bilbo and his heir Frodo were given to lavish exhibitions of their wealth,
so much so that after the War of the Ring Bilbo possessed only a small bag
of gold, and Frodo was widely believed to have sold his smial through a
paucity of funds. In the space of eighty years or so, the Bagginses had
flooded the limited money economy, doubtless causing appreciable inflation
of prices. This tendency was aggravated by the large-scale export of goods
to Isengard carried out by Lotho Sackville- Baggins using his sizeable land
resources. The suffering under the gathering and redistribution days of the
Lotho-Sharkey regime was undoubtedly intensified by the high prices of
goods.
7) The exceptional fecundity of the Shire recorded at the end of the Red
Book may have gone some way towards restoring the balance of the disturbed
economy (more food=lower prices). But the example of the (sackville-)Baggins
exploits cannot have passed unnoticed. The increased links with the outside
world that followed the end of the Third Age will have encouraged
acquisitive hobbits to follow Lotho's example. The re-establishment of the
North Kingdom as an effective political unit meant that colonists came up
the Greenway in ever-increasing numbers, and they will have needed food at
least in the early years of their settlements. However, as the north became
tamed, the Shire's
resources will have been less and less in demand. The political isolation
undertaken by King Elessar, however well-intentioned, will have hindered the
acquisition of new skills to offset the inevitable time when Shire
foodstuffs were not in demand. How long will it have taken before the Shire
Food Bubble burst? Unfortunately, we can only speculate.
(NOTE: This is a good-humoured exercise in extrapolation based on my limited
understanding of economics. Do not take it too seriously!) --