When marveling upon Middle Earth’s Dwarven fortresses, Elven palaces and imposing cities
of men, one can easily wonder how all these grand places and their material cultures
come into being. Tolkien was a philologist, not an economist, but when reading between the
pages of his works, a semblance of economic life is present in its various cultures.
Indeed, Tolkien devoted a considerable amount of thought to the withertos and whyfors of everyday
life in his world, a phenomenon just waiting to be explored. Welcome to our new series on the economy
and society of the cultures of middle earth, in this episode, we begin with the community
of the smallest of peoples, the humble Hobbit. If, like Tolkein and his Hobbits, you enjoy a
good book, there’s a new documentary to check out from the sponsor of this video, MagellanTV.
This documentary streaming service, founded by filmmakers,
is being updated with new material all the time, and recently they released ‘The Book Makers’. It’s
a broad look at the role and success of books in popular culture, focusing on what makes them
special to their readers and on the artistry of their production, be it physical or digital.
That’s just a slice of the fifteen or more hours of 4K, high definition content added every week
for their subscribers at no extra cost, covering loads of genres: science, true crime, travel, and
especially history - they boast the richest and most varied history content available anywhere.
Basically, you’ll never run out of things to watch with MagellanTV.
It is all viewable anytime, anywhere on televisions, laptops, mobile devices,
and more. Get access to 3500 hours of ad-free documentaries for only $4.99 a month,
and get a month for free by subscribing to MagellanTV via our link in the description.
Hobbit society traces its origins, fittingly, back to the 1st Year according to the reckoning
of Shire Folk, when the Halfling brothers Marco and Cavallo obtained formal permission from the
King of Arthedain, Argeleb II to cross the brown river Baranduin and settle in the lands beyond.
For this Argeleb II demanded only that they keep the Great Bridges in repair,
keep the laws of Arthedain, and to allow him to hunt thrice a year . “The land into which they had
come, though now long deserted, had been richly tilled in days of yore, and there the kings had
once had many farms, cornlands, vineyards, and woods. This land they called the Shire,
which in their language meant an ordered district of government and business - the
business of growing food and eating it and living in comparative peace and content. ”
The Hobbit economy was mostly agricultural in nature. Life in the Shire during the 3rd age,
as Tolkien put it, “had hardly any ‘government’. Families for the most part managed their own
affairs. Growing food and eating it occupied most of their time. In other matters they were,
as a rule, generous and not greedy, but contented and moderate, so that estates, farms, workshops,
and small trades tended to remain unchanged for generations” . Whenever we think of the
Shire it almost always involves the subject of food . “I hope there is something left for
the late-comers to eat and drink! What's that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think."
"And for me," said Thorin. "And raspberry jam and apple-tart," said Bifur. "And mince-pies
and cheese," said Bofur. "And pork-pie and salad," said Bombur. "And more cakes-and ale-and coffee,
if you don't mind," called the other dwarves through the door. "Put on a few eggs,
there's a good fellow!" Gandalf called after him, as the hobbit stumped off to the pantries.
"And just bring out the cold chicken and pickles!" By the time he had got all the bottles and dishes
and knives and forks and glasses and plates and spoons and things piled up on big trays, he was
getting very hot, and red in the face, and annoyed . Such an impressive smorgasbord of gourmet dishes
requires significant specialization of labour. Bilbo’s wine, for example, likely
came from vineyards such as the old Winyards of Southfarthing , indicating the presence of
cork makers and glass blowers. Meanwhile, his mince-pies required pig farmers and bakers,
while eggs would require chicken farms and so on. Moreover, the Baggins’ plates
and silverware would require some form of mining, pottery or perhaps trade.
Another aspect of Shire society to consider is the daily lives of its denizens. “Hobbits are an
unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace
and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite
haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows,
a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools” . Hobbits chose to live a
life unaided by hard industry or machinery, a sentiment inspired by Tolkien’s childhood.
From the age of four, Tolkien lived with his family in the village of Sarehole,
which, like the fictional Hobbiton, had a corn-grinding mill by the water.
“The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before I was ten,
in days when motor-cars were rare objects (I had never seen one) and men were still building
suburban railways. Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the once
thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important. ” Tolkien that
the Shire was “inspired by a few cherished square miles of actual countryside at Sarehole" and that
Hobbiton was “more or less a Warwickshire village of about the period of the Diamond Jubilee”
Tolkien lamented how often the natural world and the simple life was bulldozed by the reckless
march of industrial progress, a turmoil the author expressed in his description of the scouring of
the Shire. “'Take Sandyman's mill now. Pimple knocked it down almost as soon as he came to Bag
End. Then he brought in a lot o' dirty-looking Men to build a bigger one and fill it full o' wheels
and outlandish contraptions. They're always a-hammering and a-letting out a smoke and a
stench, and there isn't no peace even at night in Hobbiton. And they pour out filth a purpose;
they've fouled all the lower Water and it's getting down into Brandywine. If they want to make
the Shire into a desert, they're going the right way about it” . One needs only look at how Tolkien
depicts the evil powers of Isengard and Mordor to understand his contempt for unchecked technology,
as both these factions are industrialized and reliant on machinery with a disregard
for the pollution they cause. Inversely, it is no secret that Tolkien loved nature
and cherished the idealized English country-side which we see represented in the Shire.
Having now explored the economy and culture of the Shire, we will now move on to the most enigmatic
pillar of its society, its government. As previously mentioned, the Hobbits were originally
subject to King of Arthedain, but when he fell to the forces of Angmar, the Shire was left without
a ruler. “In that war the North Kingdom ended; and then the Hobbits took the land for their own,
and they chose from their own chiefs a Thain to hold the authority. ” “The Thain was the master
of the Shire-moot, and captain of the Shire-muster and the Hobbitry-in-arms; but as muster and moot
were only held in times of emergency, which no longer occurred, the Thainship had ceased to be
more than a nominal dignity. The Took family was still, indeed, accorded a special respect, for it
remained both numerous and exceedingly wealthy, and was liable to produce in every generation
strong characters of peculiar habits and even adventurous temperament. ” Thus, a basic hierarchy
developed, and continued to do so into the third age. The existence of an economic system begets
the existence of a class system, and there does seem to be a subtle one at work within the Shire.
“No one had a more attentive audience than old Ham Gamgee, commonly known as the Gaffer. He held
forth at The Ivy Bush, a small inn on the Bywater road; and he spoke with some authority, for he had
tended the garden at Bag End for forty years, and had helped old Holman in the same job before that.
Now that he was himself growing old and stiff in the joints, the job was mainly carried on by
his youngest son, Sam Gamgee. Both father and son were on very friendly terms with Bilbo and Frodo.
They lived on the Hill itself, in Number 3 Bagshot Row just below Bag End” . Sam, like his father
before him, was a gardener, a working middle class and servant to Bilbo and Frodo. Apart from Sam we
also see the farmer/working class Cotton family who became instrumental during the Scouring of
the Shire. The fact that Sam married Rosie Cotton is evidence that class among Hobbits was rigid,
and one did not often marry above or below their station. With that said, upwards mobility seems to
have been possible as well, with Sam being elected Mayor for 7 consecutive terms in his later life .
While the Gamgees were the salt of the earth, Bilbo and Frodo descend from rich Aristocrat
lineage. Being Bagginses made both Bilbo and Frodo upper-class, and as far as we know,
they both did not rely on any source of income, even before Bilbo received his treasure from the
Smaug adventure. Another aristocratic Halfling family were the Tooks. Peregrin Took I succeeded
his father Paladin II and became the 32nd Thain of the Shire and counselor of the North Kingdom.
Consequently, both Meriadoc and Peregrin came from aristocratic lines, and were heirs to vast land
within the Shire. Tolkien even plays around somewhat with the concept of nouveau riche.
“You see, your dad, Mr. Peregrin, he’s never had no truck with this Lotho, not from the beginning:
said that if anyone was going to play the chief at this time of day,
it would be the right Thain of the Shire and no upstart. ” Lotho Sackville-Baggis contributed to
the Scouring of the Shire by selling Pipe-Weed and buying up all the real estate within the
shire. “ He wanted to own everything himself, and then order other folk about. It soon came
out that he already did own a sight more than was good for him; and he was always grabbing more,
though where he got the money was a mystery: mills and malt-houses and inns, and farms, and
leaf-plantations. He'd already bought Sandyman's mill before he came to Bag End, seemingly. ”
With all that said, the only government official in the Shire whose authority and jurisdiction
we learn about in detail is the Mayor of Michel Delving, who was elected every 7 years at the Free
Fair on the White Downs. The offices of Postmaster and First Shirriff were attached to his office.
The Shire also had a police force, the “watch” presided over by 12 Shirriffs
and a postal service, the “messenger service” . For these governmental services to exist one
would imagine some form of taxation existed and to pay for this perhaps pipe-weed was essential.
Speaking of Pipe-Weed, the famous Halfling leaf was first grown in the year 1050 by Tobias
Hornblower in Southfarthing. This luxury item exploded the economy of the Shire, and spread as
far as Gondor where it was known “Hornpipe Twist’ (not ‘Southern Star’); and it is not said of sweet
galenas that the Men of Gondor ‘esteem it only for the fragrance of its flowers'. . It was also in
Bree where Pipe-weed spread from the Bree-Hobbits to the other races . Bree was an important trading
outpost, sat on the intersection of the Great East-West Road and the Great North-South Road,
a place where Men and Hobbit dwelt together and a perfect location for commerce. Unfortunately,
Bree’s Pipe-weed trade would be abused by Lotho and Saruman during the scouring of the Shire which
greatly disturbed Real Estate throughout the Halfling realm. “He liked to extend his power,
especially into Gandalf’s province, and he found that the money he could provide for the purchase
of ‘leaf’ was giving him power, and was corrupting some of the Hobbits, especially the Bracegirdles,
who owned many plantations, and so also the Sackville-Bagginses. ”
Overall, from everything we have analyzed, we can conclude that during the 3rd age,
the Shire was a non-industrialized agrarian society with a small government and a small
internal economy with limited external trade . They were focused primarily with food production
and had a loose and subtle class system with very little administration. In summary, the
Shire represented an idealistic world where the best things in life are truly the little things.
Our series on the cultures and societies of Middle Earth will continue,
so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see it.
Please, consider liking, commenting, and sharing - it helps immensely. Our videos would be impossible
without our kind patrons and youtube channel members, whose ranks you can join via the links
in the description to know our schedule, get early access to our videos, access our discord,
and much more. This is the Wizards and Warriors Channel, and we will catch you on the next one.