SALT

A Timeless Ingredient

As far back as 6050 BC, salt has been an important and integral part of the world's history, as it has been interwoven into countless civilizations. Used as a part of Egyptian religious offerings and valuable trade between the Phoenicians and their Mediterranean empire, salt and history have been inextricably intertwined for millennia, with great importance placed on salt by many different cultures. Even today, the history of salt touches our daily lives. The word "salary" was derived from the word "salt." Salt was highly valued and its production was legally restricted in ancient times, so it was historically used as a method of trade and currency. The word "salad" also originated from "salt," and began with the early Romans salting their leafy greens and vegetables. Undeniably, the history of salt is both broad and unique, leaving its indelible mark in cultures across the globe.

Most people probably think of salt as simply that white granular seasoning found in saltshakers on virtually every dining table.

It is that, surely, but it is far more. It is an essential element in the diet of not only humans but of animals, and even of many plants. It is one of the most effective and most widely used of all food preservatives. Its industrial and other uses are almost without number. Salt has great current interest as the subject of humorous cartoons, poetry and filmmaking.

The fact is that throughout history, salt—called sodium chloride by chemists—has been such an important element of life that it has been the subject of many stories, fables, folktales and fairy tales. It served as money at various times and places, and it has been the cause of bitter warfare. Offering bread and salt to visitors, in many cultures, is traditional etiquette. While records show the importance of salt in commerce in medieval times and earlier, in some places like the Sahara and in Nepal, salt trading today gives a glimpse of what life may have been like centuries ago.

Salt was in general use long before the beginning of recorded history, and dating back to around 2700 B.C. the earliest known treatise on pharmacology was published in China. A major portion of this writing is devoted to a discussion of more than 40 kinds of salt, including descriptions of two methods of salt extraction that are similar to processes used today. Salt production has been important in China for two millennia or more, and the Chinese, like many other governments over time, realized that taxing salt would could be a major revenue source. Nomads spreading westward were known to carry salt, and Egyptian art from as long ago as 1450 B.C. records salt making.

Salt was of crucial importance economically. The expression "not worth his salt" stems from the practice of trading slaves for salt in ancient Greece. Special salt rations given to early Roman soldiers were known as "salarium argentum," the forerunner of the English word "salary." References to salt can be found in languages around the globe, particularly regarding salt used for food. From the Latin "sal," for example, come such other derived words as "sauce" and "sausage." Salt was an important trading commodity carried by explorers.

Salt has played a vital part in religious ritual in many cultures, symbolizing purity. There are more than 30 references to salt in the Bible, including the well-known expression "salt of the earth." Additionally, there are many other literary and religious references to salt, including use of salt on altars representing purity, and use of "holy salt" by the Unification Church.

Salt making encompasses much of the history of the United Kingdom, particularly in the Cheshire area. Medieval European records document salt making concessions. In continental Europe, Venice rose to economic greatness through its salt monopoly. Salt making was important in the Adriatic/Balkans region as well (the present border between Slovenia and Croatia); in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tuzla is actually named for "tuz," the Turkish word for salt. The same is true for Salzburg, Austria, which has made its four salt mines major tourist attractions. Similarly in Bolivia, the main salt producing region is a tourist attraction and includes one hotel constructed entirely of salt. The grand designs of Philip II of Spain came undone through the Dutch Revolt at the end of the 16thCentury; one of the keys, according to Montesquieu, was the successful Dutch blockade of Iberian salt works, which led directly to Spanish bankruptcy. Salt making was (and still is) important in Holland, as well. France has always been a major producer of salt and any discussion of salt making and distribution in France includes discussion of the gabelle, the salt tax that was a significant contributor to the French Revolution. The salt remains just as important today. The magnitude of the gabelle is astounding; from 1630 to 1710, the tax increased from 14 times the cost of production to 140 times the cost of production, according to Pierre Laszlo in his book Salt: Grain of Life (Columbia Univ. Press). You may be familiar with the phrase: "Siberian salt mines," although salt making takes place in many places across Russia. In the Middle East, the Jordanian town of As-Salt, located on the road between Amman and Jerusalem, was known as Saltus in Byzantine times and was the seat of a bishopric. Later destroyed by the Mongols, it was rebuilt by the Mamluke sultan Baybars I in the 13th century; the ruins of his fortress remain today. Indian history recalls the prominent role of salt (including the Great Hedge and its role in the British salt starvation policy) and Mahatma Gandhi's resistance to British colonial rule. Additionally, salt played a key role in the history of West Africa, particularly during the great trading empire of Mali (13th-16th Centuries) — and it still does.

Salt has played a prominent role in the European exploration of North America and subsequent American history, Canadian history, and Mexican history, as well. The first Native Americans "discovered" by Europeans in the Caribbean were harvesting sea salt on St. Maarten. When the major European fishing fleets discovered the Grand Banks of Newfoundland at the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese and Spanish fleets used the "wet" method of salting their fish onboard, while the French and English fleets used the "dry" or "shore" salting method of drying their catch on racks onshore. Due to this early food processing, French and British fishermen became the first European inhabitants of North America since the Vikings a half-century earlier. Had it not been for the practice of salting fish, Europeans might have confined their fishing to the coasts of Europe and delayed "discovery" of the New World.

Salt motivated the American pioneers. The American Revolution had heroes who were salt makers and part of the British strategy was to deny the American rebels access to salt. Salt was on the mind of William Clark in the groundbreaking Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Northwest. The first patent issued by the British crown to an American settler gave Samuel Winslow of the Massachusetts Bay Colony the exclusive right for ten years to make salt by his particular method. The Land Act of 1795 included a provision for salt reservations (to prevent monopolies), as did an earlier treaty between the Iroquois' Onondaga tribe and the state of New York. New York has always been important in salt production. The famed Erie Canal, opened in 1825, was known as "the ditch that salt built" because salt, a bulky product presenting major transportation difficulties, was its principal cargo. Syracuse, NY, is proud of its salt history and its nickname, "Salt City." Salt production has been important in Michigan and West Virginia for more than a century. Salt played an important role on the U.S. frontier, including areas like Illinois and Nebraska, although they no longer have commercial salt production.

Salt played a key role in the Civil War, as well. In 1864, Union forces made a forced march and fought a 36-hour battle to capture Saltville, Virginia, the site of an important salt processing plant thought essential to sustaining the South's beleaguered armies. Civilian distress over the lack of salt in the wartime Confederacy undermined rebel morale, too. The important role of salt in the history of Kansas is captured in a salt museum in Hutchinson, KS. The vast distances in the American West sometimes required passage over extensive salt flats. In Canada, Windsor Salt is more than a century old. In the American West, a "salt war" was fought at El Paso, TX and we know that Nevada was known as more than a silver state. Many cities, counties, land features and other landmarks reflect the importance of salt. Salt, of course, has many uses; some techniques using salt such as production of "salt prints" in 19th Century photography have been superseded by new technologies, but others have not. However, not all American "salt history" is so old. Salt-glazed pottery is still popular. Salt is even associated with the struggle for women's rights in the U.S.

Salt also had military significance. For instance, it is recorded that thousands of Napoleon's troops died during his retreat from Moscow because their wounds would not heal due to the lack of salt. In 1777, the British Lord Howe was jubilant when he succeeded in capturing General Washington's salt supply.

Similarly throughout history, salt has been subjected to governmental monopoly and special taxes. French kings developed a salt monopoly by selling exclusive rights to produce it to a favored few who exploited that right to the point that the scarcity of salt contributed to the French Revolution. Salt taxes long supported British monarchs and thousands of British people were imprisoned for smuggling salt. In modern times, Mahatma Gandhi defied British salt laws as a means of mobilizing popular support for self-rule in India. In recent years, the promotion of free trade through the World Trade Organization has led to abolition of many national monopolies, for example, in Taiwan.

All through history, the availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization. What is now thought to have been the first city in Europe is Solnitsata, in Bulgaria, which was a salt mine, providing the area now known as the Balkans with salt since 5400 BC.[12] Salt was the best-known food preservative, especially for meat, for many thousands of years.[13] A very ancient salt-works operation has been discovered at the Poiana Slatinei archaeological site next to a salt spring in Lunca, Neamț County, Romania. Evidence indicates that Neolithic people of the Precucuteni Culture were boiling the salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage to extract salt as far back as 6050 BC.[14] The salt extracted from this operation may have directly correlated with the rapid growth of this society's population soon after production began.[15] The harvest of salt from the surface of Xiechi Lake near Yuncheng in Shanxi, China, dates back to at least 6000 BC, making it one of the oldest verifiable saltworks.[16]

There is more salt in animal tissues, such as meat, blood, and milk, than in plant tissues.[17] Nomads who subsist on their flocks and herds do not eat salt with their food, but agriculturalists, feeding mainly on cereals and vegetable matter, need to supplement their diet with salt.[18] With the spread of civilization, salt became one of the world's main trading commodities. It was of high value to the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites and other peoples of antiquity. In the Middle East, salt was used to seal an agreement ceremonially, and the ancient Hebrews made a "covenant of salt" with God and sprinkled salt on their offerings to show their trust in him.[19]

An ancient practice in time of war was salting the earth: scattering salt around in a defeated city to symbolically prevent plant growth. The Bible tells the story of King Abimelech who was ordered by God to do this at Shechem.[20] Texts claim that the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus ploughed over and sowed the city of Carthage with salt after it was defeated in the Third Punic War (146 BC),[21] although this story is now considered to be entirely apocryphal.

Salt may have been used for barter in connection with the obsidian trade in Anatolia in the Neolithic Era.[22] Salt was included among funeral offerings found in ancient Egyptian tombs from the third millennium BC, as were salted birds, and salt fish.[23] From about 2800 BC, the Egyptians began exporting salt fish to the Phoenicians in return for Lebanon cedar, glass, and the dye Tyrian purple. The Phoenicians traded Egyptian salted fish and salt from North Africa throughout their Mediterranean trade empire.[24] Herodotus described salt trading routes across Libya back in the 5th century BC. In the early years of the Roman Empire, roads were built for the transportation of salt from the salt imported at Ostia to the capital.[25]

In Africa, salt was used as currency south of the Sahara. Slabs of rock salt were used as coins in Abyssinia.[18] The Tuareg have traditionally maintained routes across the Sahara especially for the transportation of salt by Azalai salt caravans. The caravans still cross the desert from southern Niger to Bilma, although much of the trade now takes place by truck. Each camel takes two bales of fodder and two of trade goods northwards and returns laden with salt pillars and dates.[26] In Gabon, before the arrival of Europeans, the coast people carried on a remunerative trade with those of the interior by the medium of sea salt. This was gradually displaced by the salt that Europeans brought in sacks, so that the coast natives lost their previous profits; as of the late 1950s, sea salt was still the currency best appreciated in the interior.[27]

Salzburg, Hallstatt, and Hallein lie within 17 km (11 mi) of each other on the river Salzach in central Austria in an area with extensive salt deposits. Salzach means "salt river", while Salzburg means "salt castle", both taking their names from the German word Salz, salt. Hallstatt was the site of the world's first salt mine.[28] The town gave its name to the Hallstatt culture that began mining for salt in the area in about 800 BC. Around 400 BC, the townsfolk, who had previously used pickaxes and shovels, began open pan salt making. During the first millennium BC, Celtic communities grew rich trading salt and salted meat to Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome in exchange for wine and other luxuries.[13]

The word salary comes from the Latin word for salt. The reason for this is unknown; a persistent modern claim that the Roman Legions were sometimes paid in salt is baseless.[29][30] The word salad literally means "salted", and comes from the ancient Roman practice of salting leaf vegetables.[31]

Wars have been fought over salt. Venice won the Salt War (1304) with Padua over supplying the product in certain areas, and the War of Ferrara (1482–1484) for the same reason.[32][33] It played a role in the American Revolution and the San Elizario Salt War. Cities on overland trade routes grew rich by levying duties,[32] and towns like Liverpool flourished on the export of salt extracted from the salt mines of Cheshire.[34] Governments have at different times imposed salt taxes on their peoples. The voyages of Christopher Columbus are said to have been financed from salt production in southern Spain. The oppressive salt tax in France was one of the causes of the French Revolution. After being repealed, this tax was reimposed by Napoleon when he became emperor to pay for his foreign wars, and was not abolished until 1946.[32] In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led a crowd of 100,000 protestors on the "Dandi March" or "Salt Satyagraha", during which they made their own salt from the sea as a demonstration of their opposition to the colonial salt tax. This act of civil disobedience inspired numerous Indians and transformed the Indian independence movement into a national struggle.