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Originally Posted by Formendacil
You're assuming an equity in value, at least on the whole cash/value of ponies bit, between the Shire and Breeland--which given the contact between the two societies is not necessarily the case. It's possible ponies are a lot more common in the Shire, which is wealthier in any case, so it might not have been so much of a financial burden.
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I see what you mean, but I can't see six ponies being in surplus - available for sale. If Merry hadn't bought them, what would the owner(s) have done with them?
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On the other hand, even if ponies are more expensive in the Shire, I don't think cash need be much of an object--Merry is the only child of the Master of Buckland himself. If anyone in the Shire can afford to buy a few ponies, I would think he and Pippin would able to "pony up the cash."
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And no one noticed? I guess that with all the talk about Frodo, and Frodo mostly concerned about himself, we don't get to read about the big pony sale of 3018.
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(On a nitpickety note, it was only five ponies--the sixth pony, Fatty Lumpkin, was Bombadil's own: four hobbits and one pack-pony... but that's rather immaterial, I suppose...)
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That's what I thought, until that is, I reread the Conspiracy Unmasked chapter. Go back and read it and see what your copy states (and note, as Merry was recompensed for only five but bought six, this would add to his initial cost).
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Your other question, how Merry managed to do this without contracting suspicion is a bit more of a chestnut. Speculatively, perhaps he was dealing in a whole stable of ponies for Brandy Hall, and just "happened" to up the Master's order from 20 ponies to 25.
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26.
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Perhaps he already owned two, and Pippin owned two, and Fredegar had one--they're all the uppermost of Hobbits in Shire-society--and they were brought to Buckland in stages--ostensibly for riding home to Tuckborough or Bolger country. And one or two, certainly, might have been bought in Frodo's name--a good mount is the sort of thing you might need once you move from the "big city" to the country.
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Possible...
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All ridiculously speculative on my part, of course.
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No more or less than my post. Thanks!