On the bus on the way home today I started wondering how Bilbo Baggins made a living before he brought back the treasure from the Lonely Mountain. If he inherited money from Bungo and Belladonna, how did they get it? Did they live on investments? Did hobbits have banks which paid interest? Or were the Bagginses collecting rents from the tenants of Bagshot Row and Farmer Cotton?

And in the picture of the hall at Bag End in The Hobbit, a barometer is clearly visible. Was that of Dwarf or Dale manufacture I wonder? Were such items widely available in the Shire, or does the picture depict the hall after the Quest of Erebor?