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We, of course, know that the Shire did export a few goods, such as Longbottom leaf which was at some point found in Orthanc. However, do we know if the Shire also imported any goods and traded with other communities on a regular basis? If so, with whom?

I'm only interested in canon, ie the books and any letters that Tolkien may have written.

Hans Olo
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    Will economic canon do? You can't have exports unless you have imports, because the people purchasing your exports would have no way to pay for them. – Mike Scott Jun 03 '17 at 16:20
  • You could always run a huge trade surplus by having waaay more exports than imports a la Germany I guess... – Hans Olo Jun 03 '17 at 16:37
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    @MikeScott Not the case. A farmer who took produce to the next town, sold it there, and spent the money he made on food and drink in that town, would export goods but import nothing. – DJClayworth Jun 03 '17 at 16:45
  • @DJClayworth No, his expenditure would be recorded as "invisible imports" in the accounts. Tourism does count as an export. – Mike Scott Jun 03 '17 at 17:15
  • Canon aside, long-term imports = long-term exports. –  Jun 03 '17 at 18:13
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    @MikeHaskel Not unless you are running trade deficits/surpluses, which is the norm actually. – Hans Olo Jun 03 '17 at 18:47
  • @Loki That's why I said long-term. Assume two civilizations, Hobbit and Dwarf, with their own currencies. Say Dwarves want to buy Hobbit goods; problem, bc they don't have Hobbit currency. They can only do it to the extent Dwarf currency is useful to Hobbits. That means Hobbits must either want to buy Dwarf goods or invest in Dwarf businesses. The latter just defers the inevitable, though, since their investments will pay off in Dwarf currency, which must ultimately be useful to Hobbits buying Dwarf goods for any of it to make sense. Real-world trade imbalances funded by investment in same way –  Jun 03 '17 at 18:55
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    @MikeHaskel I'm willing to bet a lot that nobody in Middle Earth kept track of 'invisible exports'. Except perhaps in Mordor, which would be the natural home of corporate accountants. – DJClayworth Jun 03 '17 at 18:55
  • @DJClayworth That's why I'd expect long-run trade imbalances to be even harder in Middle Earth. If no one is making long-term cross-border investments, imbalance could only be funded by war spoils, taxation, or the like. How else would foreigners get Hobbits to give them their goods, without providing goods or services in return? –  Jun 03 '17 at 19:02
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    And culturally, I doubt Hobbits are using their exports to fund tourism abroad. –  Jun 03 '17 at 19:05
  • @DJClayworth The question was whether the Shire had any exports, not whether the Shire's national accounts showed any exports. As such, invisible exports should count, regardless of the lack of economic sophistication in the Shire. – Mike Scott Jun 04 '17 at 08:35
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    @MikeHaskel It's even simpler than you say, since Middle Earth uses hard money. When the dwarves pay for goods from the Shire they're using silver, which is a commodity that has value regardless of whether it's cut into discs with an image of King Dain II stamped on them So the Shire's exports are immediately counter-balanced by imports of silver. – Mike Scott Jun 04 '17 at 10:30
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    Yeah, FIREWORKS. And for the eleventy ninth year the vendor is Gandalf. – sampathsris Jun 04 '17 at 10:53
  • Not to advertise my own question, mind you, but some of the answers there could be informative: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/153133/68218 – can-ned_food Jun 04 '17 at 11:06
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    The question was whether the Shire had any exports, not whether the Shire's national accounts showed any exports. As such, invisible exports should count, regardless of the lack of economic sophistication in the Shire. This is the most scifi.SE comment ever posted – Azor Ahai -him- Jun 05 '17 at 05:01
  • @DJClayworth To further strengthen the Mordor idea: weren't the Nazgul invisible exports of a sort? At least when they remove their cloaks. – Angew is no longer proud of SO Jun 05 '17 at 08:14
  • such as Longbottom leaf which was at some point found in Orthanc It's not an export if it was purchased in the Shire by a traveler. At least not from a trade perspective. – Flater Jun 06 '17 at 07:58
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    @Flater In many places in the Two Towers (I don't have the books with me right now to quote) it is implied that there were systematic (but also not so obvious) exports of Longbottom leaf from the Shire to Orthanc (presumably for Saruman). – Hans Olo Jun 06 '17 at 17:49

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Hobbits of the Shire certainly had dealings with Dwarves on a regular basis; the chapter Shadow of the Past notes:

The ancient East-West Road ran through the Shire to its end at the Grey Havens, and dwarves had always used it on their way to their mines in the Blue Mountains. They were the hobbits' chief source of news from distant parts – if they wanted any: as a rule dwarves said little and hobbits asked no more.

It's also the case that they had economic dealings with these same Dwarves, as we learn in The Quest of Erebor:

You do not know much about the Shire-folk, Glóin. I suppose you think them simple, because they are generous and do not haggle; and think them timid because you never sell them any weapons.

So if the Dwarves never sell them weapons what do they sell them? A note in The Peoples of Middle-earth answers this:

You don't know much about those folk, Thorin. If you think them all that simple because they pay you whatever you ask for your bits of iron and don't bargain hard like some Men, you're mistaken.

Similar is also referenced in the long essay Of Dwarves and Men:

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.

This obviously paints an economic picture which is otherwise barely even touched on. But yet it's obviously there: Dwarves criss-crossing the Shire on their travels and exchanging work and tools for food on a regular basis.

Victim of Circumstance
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Bilbo Baggins imported a chest full of treasure from Erebor, and also Sting and his mithril coat. That's a 100% canonical import to the Shire.

Mike Scott
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    I obviously mean on a regular basis, not one-off events. I'll edit to clarify. – Hans Olo Jun 03 '17 at 16:38
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    Still it's an outstanding answer. – Fattie Jun 04 '17 at 17:11
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    Gandalf's fireworks were apparently imported as well... – Jerry Coffin Jun 04 '17 at 20:48
  • How does this address the question, both the letter and spirit of it? If I go into a country with a ring in my pocket, it doesn't mean I'm importing jewelry into it. – Avner Shahar-Kashtan Jun 05 '17 at 11:12
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    @AvnerShahar-Kashtan If you plan to keep the ring in the country, rather than just having it with you while you're visiting, then you most certainly are importing it. – Mike Scott Jun 05 '17 at 11:22
  • @AvnerShahar-Kashtan Scranton's Regional Manager is correct so far as concerns Customs. If they weren't so strict, then lots of people would use that leniency to sneak past tariffs and the like. Not that it can't be done, but when it comes to their attention they do require approval. – can-ned_food Jun 06 '17 at 01:42
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It seems obvious that they did have some imports from distant parts. For instance, when Bilbo holds his birthday party, some of the presents are toys and such imported from Dale. I think (I'm going from memory here) the text implies that the other hobbits at least knew what such things were, even though they were great rarities.

There are other things that imply trade with Dwarves, at least. For instance, the hobbits have metals - iron tools, silver spoons, &c - yet there's no sign that they do any mining themselves. Then they have some mechanical contrivances such as clocks which (as discussed in the answer by Victim of Circumstance) would have come from the Dwarves, likely in exchange for foodstuffs.

jamesqf
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  • The Hobbits themselves needn't trade directly with the Dwarves to obtain dwarvish goods, of course — but they obviously, therefore, got them from someone who was (A) not a Hobbit in the Shire, and (B) did trade with the Dwarves. – can-ned_food Jun 04 '17 at 11:08
  • @can-ned_food: That's true. Trade could be like trade between Rome & China, through a series of intermediaries. But we know that parties of dwarves pass through the Shire, and even more through Bree, so it seems logical that they'd do a bit of trading while they're passing through. But economics, like sewage treatment in Minas Tirith, is a subject Tolkien didn't bother to delve into very deeply. (And apologies for the unintentional pun :-() – jamesqf Jun 05 '17 at 16:49
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...He took off his party clothes, folded up and wrapped in tissue paper his embroidered silk waistcoat, and put it away. The Fellowship of the Ring "A Long-Expected Party"

How many anachronistic items are mentioned in this sentence?

Silk, tissue paper, embroidery, and waistcoats.

And presumably they were all reinvented thousands of years after LOTR when civilization recovered from some vast disaster after LOTR that changed the shape of lands and seas from those in the lOTR maps to those of historic times.

And I find it hard to believe that these and other advanced items like umbrellas and wall and mantle clocks were invented by hobbits.

The hobbits probably exported agricultural products from the Shire to the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains and the Dwarves probably reexported some of it to distant lands from which they acquired the luxury items they sold in the Shire and elsewhere. Possibly to Elves in Lindon and Rivendell and to Dunlanders.

What modern day items are mentioned in JRRT's writings?1

Also see this question and answers:

How did non-native plants find their way to Middle-earth?2

M. A. Golding
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  • This is awfully vague, and without sourced quotes. Which of these did they import, for example: silk, looms, embroidery needles/patterns, waistcoat patterns, waistcoats? Which anachronistic items did they import, and which did they make themselves? – Michael Foster Jul 31 '23 at 21:10