A Socialist reads the Hobbit Part 12 – The Bourgeois Republic of Lake Town
Bilbo and the dwarfs have escaped from the clutches of the proto-capitalistic Elven King but have now ended up in Lake-Town which appears to be at the next state of economic development. The government here is explicitly in the hands of a successful member of the merchant class called the Master.His power derives from revenues from trade which enable him to effectively run the show. Although power is firmly in the hands of the Bourgeois Master, there is still a show of democracy and the Master is obliged to indulge the foibles of the people from time to time. We see this when Thorin turns up at the gate and declares himself as the returned King Under The Mountain. The Master has no interest in anything that might disrupt business, but is obliged to give in to the popularity of the dwarfs with the people. So he puts on a show of welcoming and supporting them with some feasts and support.
But I am getting ahead of myself. The dwarfs have arrived packed in barrels and as usual, have no supplies or equipment and worst of all for an expedition to reclaim treasure from a dragon, no weapons. They need to retool before they can proceed. There is also a time constraint on the project. They have to get to the Lonely Mountain in time for Durin’s Day so they can find the secret door. It was lucky that they proved such a hit with the people obliging the Master to back their project. Although the Master would probably have preferred to have nothing to do with them at all, he probably reasoned that this was a fairly cheap way of placating the population. Foreign wars have always been a handy means of distracting populations from their own discontent and aligning them with the government. Supplying 13 dwarfs and a hobbit with some ponies and some gear was a pretty light expenditure, especially as it was a mission without the slightest hope of success. There was little danger of mission creep.
Lake-Town is built on stilts in the lake itself. The main activity is the port which handles goods, though we don’t get much information on the exact economic situation in this part of Middle Earth, we do hear that it has declined since the arrival of the dragon. The possibility of change evoked by the arrival of Thorin and his claim to be there to re-establish the dwarf kingdom is popular. This indicates a resistance to the current economic setup, and this is reinforced by the emergence of old ballads predicting good times when the dragon is killed. The Master is a wily politician and rather than confront the mood aims to subvert it, and he gets some new songs written to take advantage of the situation. Subtle manipulation of popular media is one of the stocks in trade of bourgeois democracies.
They set off for the mountain and according to any rational assessment of the situation, certain death. We will see how they get on in the next episode.
