re: #24 EPR-radar

Bilbo was a lousy capitalist. He spent down his gold for years by using it to pay for incidental expenses, and didn’t do anything at all with the mythril shirt.

But Middle-Earth is pre-capitalist, so it fits.

I agree. Late to the discussion (as usual), but it has to be recalled that Bilbo was already fairly affluent by Hobbit standards, being part of the Shire “gentry”, whose assets and income were likely founded (ultimately) in land ownership/rental. Since Bilbo (unlike many in the British squirearchy with-whom Tolkien would have been familiar) didn’t squander his money on extravagances, he probably did just use the swag he brought back from Erebor to pay for the day-to-day, (and the occasional case of Old Winyards), which likely made his tenants happy…

As for his mithril shirt, it’s unlikely Bilbo or any other Hobbit had even the least idea what the thing was made of, still less its value. It probably spent decades gathering dust at he back of the Mathom-House museum. Maybe a Dwarf might figure out what it was (and worth), but those folks didn’t spend a lot of time in The Shire on tourism.