Economy of Middle-earth: Difference between revisions

Less seriously, economists and financial journalists such as John Carney have explored the possible economic effects of [[Smaug]] the dragon's capture of the [[Dwarves in Middle-earth|Dwarves]]' treasure of gold. Some have suggested this [[monetary policy|reduction of the money supply]] would cause a severe economic shock and [[deflation]]; others that the real shock was on the [[Supply-side economics|supply side]], as Smaug atehad eaten so many productive Dwarves that the trade of the town of [[Dale (Middle-earth)|Dale]] would have been seriously reduced.

| attr1=[[Wiglaf]] on repaying [[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]]'s generosity<br/>generosity (lines 2633–2640)

| 1 = Ic ðæt maél geman &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; þaér wé medu þégun

þonne wé gehéton &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; þaér wéússum meduhláforde þégun

þæt wé him ðá gúðgetawa &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; ússumgyldan hláfordewoldon

when we promised &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; gyldanto woldonour lord

that we to him for the war-gear &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; þearfwished gelumpe,to repay,

The scholar Jennifer Culver states that Tolkien based his account of gifting and exchange on the [[Rings in early Germanic cultures|Germanic gifting tradition]], as described in medieval works such as ''[[Beowulf]]'', familiar to Tolkien. There, a lord could "broaden his reach" by giving gifts, while the visible exchange of gifts defined the relative status of the people involved. Culver explores the significance of [[Sauron]]'s gift of [[Rings of Power|magical rings]] to the nine [[Ringwraith]]s – in exchange for their lives – and the nature of the [[One Ring]] itself as an item of exchange.<ref name="Culver 2013">{{cite book |last=Culver |first=Jennifer |year=2013 |chapter=<!--Part IV: The Body and the Source Material.--> Chapter 9: Extending the Reach of the Invisible Hand: A Gift Looks for Gain in the Gifting Economy of Middle-earth |title=The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality |editor-last=Vaccaro |editor-first=Christopher |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=978-0-7864-7478-3 }}</ref><ref name="Fee 1996">{{cite journal |last=Fee |first=Christopher |title="Beag & Beaghroden": Women, treasure and the language of social structure in "Beowulf" |journal=Neuphilologische Mitteilungen |year=1996 |volume=97 |issue=3 |publisher=Modern Language Society |pages=285–294 |issn = 002837540028-3754 |jstor=43346397}}</ref>

Tolkien mentions money and items of value in his Middle-earth writings. The [[Hobbit]]s used money: in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', [[Bilbo Baggins]], leaving [[the Shire]] in a hurry, is recorded as forgetting to take any money with him.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1937}} 2 "Roast Mutton"</ref> In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', [[Barliman Butterbur]] pays 30 silver [[pennies]] compensation for the loss of horses and ponies stolen from ''[[The Prancing Pony]]'' inn at [[Bree, Middle-earth|Bree]]; one pony cost some four silver pennies.<ref name="Knife in the Dark" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} Book 1, ch. 11 "A Knife in the Dark"</ref> Further, Bilbo gives away "a few pennies" before the birthday party, while at the [[Council of Elrond]], Gandalf uses the phrase "worth a gold piece" of significant news.<ref name="Fraser"/> There is however no indication where such coins might have been minted.<ref name="Fraser">{{cite journal |last=Fraser |first=Kenneth |title=Coinage in Middle-earth |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |pages=42–43 |url=https://journals.tolkiensociety.org/mallorn/article/download/164/153}}</ref> The people of [[Gondor]] used silver coins as currency. The main coinage was the Castar; a quarter of a Castar was a Tharni.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1996}} II. "The Appendix on Languages"<!--p. 45--></ref>

Steven Kelly argues that while Tolkien's world is generally viewed as a medieval fantasy world, hence implied to be a pre-[[Capitalism|capitalistic]] society, it has some elements of capitalistic society. ThisCiting the philologist and Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]], Kelly states that this is a result of the clash of two major themes in Tolkien's world-building: "the old Northern European world of fairy-tale" to which most of Middle-earth belongs, and "a relatively modern world represented in [[the Shire]]",<ref name="Kelly 2016"/> partly modelled on 19th century England.<ref name="Kelly 2016"/><!--pp. 114–115-->{{sfn|Shippey|2001|pp=47–48}} While the former, such as the land of [[Gondor]],<ref name="Lacon 1994">{{Cite journal |last=Lacon |first=Ruth |date=1994 |title=The Economy and Economic History of Gondor |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45320381 |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=31 |pages=37–44 |jstor=45320381 |issn=0308-6674}}</ref> has been described as [[Feudalism|feudal]] or pre-feudal, with concepts like [[fief]]s. The Shire, on the other hand, has an economy that is both deceptively simple, a self-sufficient [[agrarian society]] resistant to capitalism, described even as [[Communism|communist]], but with trade and other economic patterns resembling those found in modern capitalist systems. In particular, Kelly argues that the handling of [[hobbit]]'s [[List of fictional plants#In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth|pipe-weed]] can be seen as a case of modern [[commodity fetishism]].<ref name="Kelly 2016">{{Cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Steven |date=15 April 2016 |title=Breaking the Dragon's Gaze: Commodity Fetishism in Tolkien's Middle-earth |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol34/iss2/8 |journal=[[Mythlore]] |volume=34 |issue=2 |issn=0146-9339 |at=Article 8}}</ref> Jay Atkins writes in ''[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]]'' that the Shire functions as a [[Distributism|distributist]] economy, as defined by [[G. K. Chesterton]] and [[Hilaire Belloc]] in the early 20th century: it is respectful of nature, and families own the small-scale means of production. Atkins comments that "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]" alludes to [[socialism]], as under Sharkey's unjust rulership, sharing is advocated: only it is all one way, as Sharkey takes away Hobbit property without returning anything.<ref name="Atkins 2017">{{cite journal |last=Atkins |first=Jay |title=On Tolkien's Presentation of Distributism through the Shire |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=58 |year=2017 |pages=23–28 |jstor=48614871}}</ref>

=== Resistance to soulless economic progress ===

The Tolkien scholar [[Patrick Curry]] links the search for economic progress in Middle-earth to industrialisation and a dark sort of [[magic in Middle-earth|magic]], that of the wizardry of [[Sauron]] and [[Saruman]] with wheels and fires and labouring workers, writing that "the Enemy is thus 'Lord of magic and machines{{' "}}. {{sfn|Curry|1998|p=74}} He contrasts this with the Elvish magic of "enchantment", stating that "in contemporary terms, the domination of financial and technological magic over enchantment ... is something we see confirmed everywhere in Middle-earth today ... [andalong with the sentiment that] Progress is not only good for us but unavoidable". {{sfn|Curry|1998|p=74}} In Curry's view, Tolkien's Middle-earth writings "invite the reader into a compelling and remarkably complete pre-modern world, saturated with ... values ..[for] of respectrelationships ... with each other, and nature, and ... the spirit", retaining "personal integrity and responsibility and [not] decanted into a soulless calculus of financial profit-and-loss." In short, he writes, "Wisdom in Middle-earth is not a matter of economic, scientific or technological expertise, but of practical and ethical wisdom."<ref name="Curry 1998">{{cite book sfn|last=Curry |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Curry |title=Defending Middle-Earth |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=1998 |orig-yearpp=1997 |isbn=978-0-261-10371-9 |pages=74, 91, 103, 145144–145}}</ref>

The financial journalist John Carney takes a humorous look at the economic effect of [[Smaug]] the dragon and his hoard of treasure captured from the [[Dwarves in Middle-earth|Dwarves]]. He notes that Francis Woolley, professor of economics at [[Carleton University]], suggested that Smaug's withdrawal of so much gold from circulation represented a severe tightening of [[monetary policy]], which would cause "[[deflation]] and depressed economic activity".<ref name="Carney 2013">{{Cite web |last=Carney |first=John |date=3 January 2013 |title=The Economics of Smaug |url=https://www.cnbc.com/id/100352038 |access-date=27 June 2023 |website=[[CNBC]] }}</ref><ref name="Woolley 2012">{{cite web |last=Woolley<!--prof. of Economics, Carleton University: https://carleton.ca/fwoolley/bio/ --> |first=Frances |title=The Macroeconomics of Middle Earth |url=https://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2012/12/the-macroeco.html |website=Worthwhile Canadian Initiative |access-date=27 June 2023 |date=30 December 2012}}</ref> Against this view, the 150 years between Smaug's capture of the [[Lonely Mountain]] and the events in ''The Hobbit'' would have allowed the economy to adjust to the shock.<ref name="Carney 2013"/> On the other hand, the economist Nick Rowe argues on [[New Keynesian economics|New Keynesian]] terms that prices might stay high as businesses could hold out awaiting Smaug's downfall.<ref name="Carney 2013"/> Yet another viewpoint is set out by Eric Crampton, who suggests that the economic shock was on the [[Supply-side economics|supply side]], as Smaug consumed "thousands of very skilled Dwarven craftsmen", depriving Dale of much of its trade in farm commodities which it had exchanged for Dwarf-produced industrial products.<ref name="Carney 2013"/> Carney himself suggests that the wizard [[Gandalf]] could have used his powers to replace the gold "out of thin air", but just as the [[Federal Reserve]] refused to refund the wealth lost to [[Bernie Madoff|Bernard Madoff]]'s fraudulent [[Ponzi scheme]], Gandalf did not do this.<ref name="Carney 2013"/> In 2012, Smaug's wealth was estimated at $61 billion, placing him in the [[Forbes Fictional 15]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/fictional-15-12/smaug.html |title=Smaug |access-date=8 July 2012 |work=[[Forbes]] |year=2012 |archive-date=29 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729210301/https://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/fictional-15-12/smaug.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Kirill Eskov]]'s 1999 fantasy ''[[The Last Ringbearer]]'' parodies ''The Lord of the Rings'', and is an informal sequel to it. It has been interpreted as a critique of, among other things, [[Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings|Tolkien's anti-modern environmental vision]].<ref name="Clinton 2016">{{cite book |last=Clinton |first=Greg |title=Reading and Interpreting the Works of JRR Tolkien |publisher=Enslow Publishing |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-7660-8362-2 |pages=30–31 |chapter=A Life of Fairy-Stories |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iAtiDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30}}</ref><ref name="Stuart 2022">{{cite book |last=Stuart |first=Robert |title=Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2022 |page=150 |isbn=978-3-030-97475-6 }}</ref> It portrays [[Mordor]] as a society based on rational knowledge, in contrast to the war-mongering, anti-industrializationindustrialisation faction of Gandalf and the Elves.<ref name="Salon">{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Laura |author-link=Laura Miller (writer) |url=http://www.Salon.com/2011/02/15/last_ringbearer/ |title=Middle-earth according to Mordor |website=[[Salon.com]] |date=15 February 2011}}</ref>