Arcane Topic Warning: Part the Fifth

[Kuruharan]

Imo, another similarity involves their good ability in commerce.

A good point. I'd never made that connection before.

The building jobs also reminds me of an often overlooked but important aspect of dwarven activities of the First Age...roadbuilding. The dwarves built the road in eastern Beleriand for the purposes of trade with Menegroth. It became a primary route for groups of Men moving into Beleriand (note that Estolad sits astride the road). It is certainly not difficult to imagine that the dwarves conducted extensive trading with the Men who passed through the mountains and then lived in the area. Estolad may, in fact, have become something like a big open air bazaar due to its circumstances of having a local population and close proximity to several different peoples.

EDIT:

I’ve received a couple of nervously phrased e-mails asking me to clarify my remark on the mercantile history of the Jewish people. My comment was historically based. For a considerable portion of their history the Jewish people did primarily work in commerce…due to the fact that the societies they were attempting to live in would not allow them any other means to sustain themselves. They were also, throughout a large portion of the Middle Ages, in the position to be able to successfully trade with both the Christian and Muslim worlds.

My comment didn’t refer to anything beyond this little parallel.