Dwarven Economics: What Dwarves Eat and Why They Trade

[Yenrak]

In my version of Storm King's Thunder, I've moved the Goldenfields encounter to Hundlestone. This got me thinking about the economics and ecology of a Dwarven city. Instead of being a breadbasket to the world, the city is a source of metals work to the world. The Hill Giants have learned that the dwarves have enormous stores of good they accumulated through trade.

Dwarves are shown in the Hobbit and elsewhere as having an enormous appetite for surface food. They clean out Bilbo's larder. This would explain one of the dwarves' motivations for their constant metals work and trading with outsiders: the desire to acquire meats, grains, beer, that they do not produce themselves.

Of coursae, the dwarves would have a native cuisine oriented around what they could raise themselves. Lots of mushrooms and perhaps some livestock that can be raised on mushrooms. Some of what we know as lampenflora, plants that can be raised underground by artificial light, would also be cultivated: algae, mosses, even ferns. And there'd be specialties developed from "twilight zone" entrance of caves, which support bats and a larger variety of plantlife.

But to get a broader range of crops and goods such as textiles, dwarves would trade with the outside world. It's likely that in a world with plentiful dwarves there would be a very high degree of a division of labor. The dwarves would have a huge comparative advantage in mining and metal working, so much so that there would like be very little of this done by humans and other surface folk. Human pastoralists and farmers would see a lot of demand for the products of their herds and crops from the dwarves, giving them the incentive to concentrate on these endeavors as opposed to mining and smithing.

Probably a lot of salt would come from dwarves or gnomes. (Hmm. Maybe I'll make salt mines a gnomish specialty.)

So, in my campaign, the party are guards protecting a caravan making its way from Luskan to Bryn Shandr. The caravan would carry meats, grains, vegetables, spices for sale in Hundlestone. It would pick up metalworks for sale in the Ten Towns (yes there are dwarves in Dwarven Valley but perhaps not enough to supply all the needs of the Ten Towners). The Ten Towners would also need spices from the south. One the return journey, the caravan would carry scrimshaw to Hundlestone, which I imagine would purchase a lot of it as decorations for jewelry, armor, etc. And then it would acquire metals goods for sale in Luskan (where ships would carry it south along the Sword Coast).

 

[jasper]

It is one of the most taboo topics in dwarven life. Few speak of it. Tonight on sixty minutes we will talk with Darryl, his brother Darryl, and his other brother Darryl. They are the farmers of the dell. Growing fresh fruits and veggies on the surface of..... TWANG. ON MY. NOT THE HAMMER. NOT THE HAMMER. MAKE IT STOP. MAKE IT STOP.
beeeeeepppppp transmission lost be right back.
IT IS ONE THE MOST HARDEST CHOICES A YOUNG DWARF CAN MAKE. SILVER,GEM, OR GOLD MINER. WE WILL FOLLOW THREE BROTHERS TONIGHT....
jasper eyes the good people behind the camera who are polishing their war hammers..

 

[Dioltach]

It makes things much simpler if you simply assume that dwarves hunt/farm goblins.

 

[Celebrim]

The answer to this question is going to vary from campaign to campaign.

In my campaign, dwarves are famous gourmands and Dwarven cuisine is considered by many to be the most enjoyable and refined sort of cuisine (contrast Disc World). The dwarf cuisine results from the merchantile nature of their race, their cosmopolitan nature, their wide travels, and their great appreciation of craftsmanship and working with your hands. So, they eat just about everything that is edible, and tend to do a really good job of making it edible. In the real world, it was European travels and demand for pungent flavors that drove the spice trade. In my game, it's the dwarves. The dwarves love spicy food, and are willing to go to the ends of the world (or have the ends of the world come to them) to get it, and (like the Europeans) will trade gold and steel to get it.

What dwarves don't do, and what they recognize they aren't as good at as other races, is raise a lot of their own food. Dwarves recognize that they aren't as naturally talented or well suited to be farmers, either with plants or engaging in animal husbandry. They do raise some of the fungal and underdark crops developed by the goblins, but mostly as a surety against being besieged and not as a primary food source. So most Dwarven kingdoms in my world exist in an explicit partnership with human tenants who live on the surface, and who trade with and/or are taxed by their Dwarf patrons in exchange for protection and metalworking. This is usually a fairly amicable relationship, as dwarves tend to be very fair and just lieges and landlords (although of course abusive exceptions exist, but probably less often than the other way around).

 

[Zardnaar]

You can farm mountains and hill you just won't have high intensity agriculture and large populations. Compare Switzerland to France. Valleys and grazing.

Mass shipment of food came alot later and you kind if need ports where the grain etc was consumed there.