[Mhoram]

But in far distant days the Dwarves were secretive [struck
out: - and none more so than the Longbeards -] and had few
dealings with the Elves. In the West at the end of the First
Age the dealings of the Dwarves of the Ered Lindon with King
Thingol ended in disaster and the ruin of Doriath, the memory
of which still poisoned the relations of Elves and Dwarves in
after ages. At that time the migrations of Men from the East and
South had brought advance-guards into Beleriand; but they
were not in great numbers, though further east in Eriador and
Rhovanion (especially in the northern parts) their kindred must
already have occupied much of the land. There dealings
between Men and the Longbeards must soon have begun. For
the Longbeards, though the proudest of the seven kindreds,
were also the wisest and the most farseeing. Men held them in
awe and were eager to learn from them; and the Longbeards
were very willing to use Men for their own purposes. Thus there
grew up in those regions the economy, later characteristic of the
dealings of Dwarves and Men (including Hobbits): Men became
the chief providers of food, as herdsmen, shepherds, and land-
tillers, which the Dwarves exchanged for work as builders,
roadmakers, miners, and the makers of things of craft, from
useful tools to weapons and arms and many other things of
great cost and skill. To the great profit of the Dwarves.

-from HoME XII, Part II