Jumping from Tolkien to Tolkien-inspired Dungeons & Dragons, consider the textile industry. The Players Handbook, 5th edition, tells us (a) a square yard of ca

Jumping from Tolkien to Tolkien-inspired Dungeons & Dragons, consider the textile industry. The Players Handbook, 5th edition, tells us (a) a square yard of canvas costs 1 silver and (b) a "squalid" lifestyle, one step up from the "wretched" lifestyle where you have absolutely nothing, costs 1 silver per day. Based on historical rates for weaving, a weaver could plausibility weave 30 square yards of rough canvas a day, but doing so would consume over 8000 yards of rough thread per yard of canvas. A spinner, meanwhile, could only produce, optimistically, 6000 yards of rough thread a day. Assuming most of the weaver's income was spent on raw materials, leaving them perhaps 2 silver per day for the common weaver to live a "poor" lifestyle, your spinners are going to earn maybe half a silver per day, assuming their raw materials are virtually free. So how can your spinners survive on less than a squalid income? Well, it would probably help if they were small, like halflings, and so needed less food, or children, who had part of their living expenses covered by their parents. It would be even better if they were both; either would bump you into the "squalid" income bracket, both would bump you all the way to "poor". Conclusion: the textile industry in Dungeons & Dragons is built on poor halfling children working 12+ hour shifts.