Education in Middle Earth

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Now, regarding my caveat from earlier. England was also open to widescale invasions (the Vikings for instance), and one could look at Sharkey's ruffians -- outside interlopers at first only interested in plunder -- as just such pillagers, taking off with barrrels of Longbottom Leaf and foodstuffs to line Saruman's coffers. Like the Vikings, Sharkey's ruffians then became more systematic, actually subjugating the conquered race of Hobbits and taking up their abodes in the Shire (like England's Danelaw). In any case, the exportation of products from the Shire to the South at that point in time does not equate to trade, rather it was appropriation by a conquering race who began to impose their rule, and their less than subtle modifications of Hobbit culture and architecture.

One thing that always amuses me about the likely results of Saruman's 'asset-stripping' is that all those people he sold Longbottom Leaf to would certainly have wanted more of the weed, so The Shire might well have ended up with a highly profitable trade in the end

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

One thing that always amuses me about the likely results of Saruman's 'asset-stripping' is that all those people he sold Longbottom Leaf to would certainly have wanted more of the weed, so The Shire might well have ended up with a highly profitable trade in the end

In the end, the gentle, charming Hobbits killed more folk than Sauron or Morgoth ever did. How's that for irony?

But I assume with the advent of the King returning to reclaim Arnor in the 4th Age, trade boomed for the Hobbits, particularly in pipeweed. Although nearly all the Hobbitish brands of Tobacco have since disappeared (like Old Toby and Long Bottom Leaf), there is still the Camel brand of cigarettes. 'Camel', as any Middle-earth aficionado knows, is merely a Westron bastardization of 'Khamûl', first exported by messrs. Zippo and Lucky Strikeflint in the second century of the 4th Age.