Q: Why Did Saruman Buy Supplies from the Shire?
ANSWER: Readers occasionally note that it seems odd for Saruman to engage in extensive trade with the Shire when he should have been able to purchase supplies from Dunland and Rohan. Not only was the Shire hundreds of miles away from Isengard, Eriador was almost totally deserted and trade should have long since fallen off. So why was Saruman buying supplies from the Hobbits?
I think the most reasonable explanation is that his purchases also bought him influence in the Shire. Lotho Sackville-Baggins became Saruman’s proxy in the Shire and helped prepare the way for Saruman’s eventual takeover. In Unfinished Tales of Númenóre and Middle-earth Tolkien suggests that Saruman may have first begun to take an interest in the Shire just to spy on Gandalf. Eventually he became fond of the Shire’s pipeweed (which was tobacco, not marijuana) but because he had scorned Gandalf’s use of the pipeweed Saruman hid his own interest in it.
Although there is no mention of towns or villages among the Dunlendings, they must have been able to support themselves with their own farms. Saruman should easily have been able to purchase food from the Dunlendings just as he was able to recruit soldiers from among them. But up until he openly broke with Rohan, Saruman would also have been able to acquire supplies from the Rohirrim.
So I don’t think there is any need to assume that Saruman’s need for supplies were so great that he had to send all the way to the Shire for basic food items. His trade may have focused more on acquiring rare things, such as tobacco and wine, which would be delicacies in Isengard and symbols of his status as a great lord (at least to his servants).
In modern politics large, powerful nations often arrange trade agreements with smaller, less well-to-do countries in order to gain influence over them. By making the smaller countries their financial dependents in trade, the larger nations build strong alliances that they can leverage to their own geopolitical advantage. The United States, Russia, and China all actively use strategic financial politics to advance their interests in various parts of the world. Tolkien may have been thinking this was Saruman’s objective; and in the end he was able to use that influence to inflict cruelty on the Hobbits in a low form of revenge for the devastating loss he had suffered in the War of the Ring.
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What’s to say Saruman didn’t trade with others who traded with the Shire. It seems more than likely Products from the Shire would have made their way to Bree as it was a centre of trade along the Great East Road and the long road that ran between Bree and Gondor. Also i think that many tend to forget that Saruman didn’t become openly evil until very late in his “carrer.” He along with the other Istari were around Middle-Earth for roughly 1400 years before the WR.
That’s interesting. And, you can see that even in Tolkien’s day, he could see how the governments were using trade as a political stepping stone. Today, we/they just “buy” their enemies in money, aid and arms.
I don’t know but I can imagine that crops grown in other places besides the Shire may not have been grown organically like Hobbits were likely to do. Crops and other products may not have been of the same quality as those produced by Hobbits.
Saruman had also fields in his territory where slaves worked but possibly they were not enough and in the highlands and forests of Dunland the production of food was only large enough for the locals. The Shire seems to be exceptionally fertile and already the hobbits had contacts with ,,export” (at least I assume that they indeed supplied the dwarves of Ered Luin with food 🙂 ).