re: #5 steve_davis

Let’s stipulate that the packs are only of gold, no jewels. I don’t know exactly what a small horse could comfortably carry from day to day on the trip back—maybe 125 pounds of gold? What happens when he arrives home? Medieval and feudal societies tend to be very cash poor. There aren’t really any banks so wealth is hoarded in land. To add to this, bilbo arrives home with a mitheril chain mail shirt and a sword that would both make him by themselves one of the wealthiest people around. Boromir will say to Frodo without irony that the chain mail is worth more than the value of many small kingdoms. So again, what realistically could bilbo do with that wealth? To use it would be to spawn massive inflation. Who wants to give a ballpark estimate on what bilbo’s wealth would be in 2022 dollars?

A racehorse in a handicap race carries from 105 to 130 pounds (5 pounds is estimated to be worth 1/5 of a second per mile). For Western riding, the saddle and gear is about 50 pounds, and the cowboy close to 200. And that horse can go all day.

If speed is not of the essence, that horse could easily carry 300 pounds, maybe 400 if there’s a smooth road and they’re only traveling half-days.