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Dwarven Economics: What Dwarves Eat and Why They Trade
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<blockquote data-quote="Yenrak" data-source="post: 7586470" data-attributes="member: 6888829"><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>Probably a lot of salt would come from dwarves or gnomes. (Hmm. Maybe I'll make salt mines a gnomish specialty.)</p><p></p><p>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).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yenrak, post: 7586470, member: 6888829"] 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). [/QUOTE]
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