I think the value estimate for Smaug falls a bit short on account of Smaug's supply of Mithril.
Smaug took over the Lonely Mountain, once the home of the Dwarves. Being the only race who mined Mithril, it is reasonable to assume that the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain had a good supply of mithril items - weapons, chain armor, plate armor - possibly as much as a tenth of their total population could have had mithril items. The population of the Lonely Mountain is not obvious; for the purposes of this analysis I am assuming five hundred dwarves, of whom 50 might have had a mithril item.
Now, the value of one mithril item (a hobbit/prince-sized mithril mail shirt) is set at the approximate value of the Shire. To calculate the value of the shire we must look at the number of potential residents, the value of the land, and the value of the houses. (Note that this does not include possessions or yearly domestic product, and so still falls a bit short of reality)
A quick scan of the Internet finds cottages in Ireland for sale at ~125,000 euros. In dollars, this is $180,000. I think we can lowball this a bit, and say that the average worth of a house in the Shire (in today's currency) is $100,000.
Since the Shire is the main population of hobbits in Middle Earth, it must have had a sustainable population level. And, being divided into four "Farthings," each with their own mayor, it is reasonable to assume that these acted as small towns. A medieval city might have had 10,000 residents; a town can be assumed to have had just 2,000 for the purposes of discussion.
So we have 2,000 residents per town, assuming 2.5 per house leaves us 800 buildings per town. Four towns gives us 3200 buildings, each with an approximate worth of $100,000 for a total of $320,000,000 for the buildings in the Shire.
On to farmland. The recorded size of the Shire is 18,000 square miles, which equates to 11,520,000 acres. Let's assume a quarter of this is developed, usable land, giving us 2,880,000 usable acres of farmland. Price per-acre for farmland in my recent Internet search is about $400. Multiplying this out, we get $1,152,000,000 for the Shire's farmland.
Added up, we see that the Shire is worth about $1,472,000,000 in today's money - the approximate worth of the Mithril shirt. Please note that this puts Bilbo himself (and later Frodo) solidly on our list of the richest fictional entities.
Taking our estimate of 50 total Mithril items in the Lonely Mountain, this gives Smaug an additional $73,600,000,000 of net worth, putting his overall value at $82,200,000,000 - easily topping the list of the richest fantasy beings.
Smaug took over the Lonely Mountain, once the home of the Dwarves. Being the only race who mined Mithril, it is reasonable to assume that the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain had a good supply of mithril items - weapons, chain armor, plate armor - possibly as much as a tenth of their total population could have had mithril items. The population of the Lonely Mountain is not obvious; for the purposes of this analysis I am assuming five hundred dwarves, of whom 50 might have had a mithril item.
Now, the value of one mithril item (a hobbit/prince-sized mithril mail shirt) is set at the approximate value of the Shire. To calculate the value of the shire we must look at the number of potential residents, the value of the land, and the value of the houses. (Note that this does not include possessions or yearly domestic product, and so still falls a bit short of reality)
A quick scan of the Internet finds cottages in Ireland for sale at ~125,000 euros. In dollars, this is $180,000. I think we can lowball this a bit, and say that the average worth of a house in the Shire (in today's currency) is $100,000.
Since the Shire is the main population of hobbits in Middle Earth, it must have had a sustainable population level. And, being divided into four "Farthings," each with their own mayor, it is reasonable to assume that these acted as small towns. A medieval city might have had 10,000 residents; a town can be assumed to have had just 2,000 for the purposes of discussion.
So we have 2,000 residents per town, assuming 2.5 per house leaves us 800 buildings per town. Four towns gives us 3200 buildings, each with an approximate worth of $100,000 for a total of $320,000,000 for the buildings in the Shire.
On to farmland. The recorded size of the Shire is 18,000 square miles, which equates to 11,520,000 acres. Let's assume a quarter of this is developed, usable land, giving us 2,880,000 usable acres of farmland. Price per-acre for farmland in my recent Internet search is about $400. Multiplying this out, we get $1,152,000,000 for the Shire's farmland.
Added up, we see that the Shire is worth about $1,472,000,000 in today's money - the approximate worth of the Mithril shirt. Please note that this puts Bilbo himself (and later Frodo) solidly on our list of the richest fictional entities.
Taking our estimate of 50 total Mithril items in the Lonely Mountain, this gives Smaug an additional $73,600,000,000 of net worth, putting his overall value at $82,200,000,000 - easily topping the list of the richest fantasy beings.
that is one of the most epic lists of rich people I've seen in a long time.
