Proposal for a Shire-like Town in South Central PA
We submit for your consideration that a Shire-like town can be cultivated without financial investors, money donors, executive boards, or business intermediaries of any kind. Within 5 to 10 years, we envision a local nexus of cultural and economic exchange anthropologically akin to Tolkien’s Shire.
A Local Nexus of Economic Exchange
The Shire sustains a variety of ordinary occupations, including crop production, animal husbandry, milling, postal delivery, police work, vehicle production and repair, landscaping, trading, shop-keeping, inn-keeping, tavern-keeping, brewing, and performance...
The Shire's economy is not wholly insular. Hobbits trade with the Men of Bree and the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains. They also cultivate a species of Nicotiana that was “originally brought over Sea,” and the resulting pipe-weed is exported beyond the Shire.
The Shire therefore presents neither an isolated agrarian commune nor a centrally managed economic system. It depicts a locally rooted society whose households, trades, and businesses nevertheless participate in wider networks of exchange.
Homegrown Culture
Monogamy is unmistakably portrayed by Tolkien as the cultural norm within the Shire and as an essential foundation of Hobbit social stability. Shire-folk likewise take for granted that male and female Hobbits contribute differently, in teleological terms, to the flourishing of Hobbit society.
Together, these cultural practices reinforce across generations the Hobbits’ natural inclination toward social cohesion and mutual dependence in everyday life.
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