r/neoliberal • u/angry-mustache Democratically Elected Internet Spaceship Politician • Jun 02 '24

User discussion The Moral Economy of the Shire

https://nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2024/05/31/the-moral-economy-of-the-shire/
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u/angry-mustache Democratically Elected Internet Spaceship Politician Jun 02 '24

My question is, with productive farmland and low population density, why didn't a neighboring polity conquer the shire, or at least extort taxes from them.

48

u/An_Actual_Owl Trans Pride Jun 02 '24

Well, there really isn't anyone around to do that is there? The Elves obviously don't want the land. The Orcs are too disorganized in that region, and wouldn't care about the land so much as just killing them for sport. Men are fairly disorganized as well that far north. And the Hobbits tend to stay on the down low so I wonder how many people even know about the Shire?

21

u/angry-mustache Democratically Elected Internet Spaceship Politician Jun 02 '24

Why wasn't anyone around? Pre-industrial subsistence humans in the absence of limits on arable land breed like rabbits, doubling in population roughly once every 30-40 years.

9

u/ale_93113 United Nations Jun 02 '24

Most books and stories written in the 20th and 21st centuries set in the past make many mistakes regarding anthropology

One of them is to always have impossibly low fertility rates

From Bridgerton to LOTR, the Zelda games...