History of salt

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Collected salt mounds
Naturally formed salt crystals
Ancient method of boiling brine into pure salt in China

ionic compound made of sodium and chloride ions. All life depends on its chemical properties to survive. It has been used by humans for thousands of years, from food preservation to seasoning. Salt's ability to preserve food was a founding contributor to the development of civilization. It helped eliminate dependence on seasonal availability of food, and made it possible to transport food over large distances. However, salt was often difficult to obtain, so it was a highly valued trade item, and was considered a form of currency by certain people[citation needed]. Many salt roads, such as the Via Salaria in Italy, had been established by the Bronze Age[citation needed
].

All through history, availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization. In Britain, the suffix "

Egyptian Empire to its north, because it supplied it with a kind of salt that came to be called by its name, natron. Today, salt is almost universally accessible, relatively cheap, and often iodized
.

Sources

Salt comes from two main sources:

Maramureş, and southern Poland (Wieliczka). Tuzla
in Bosnia and Herzegovina was named in Hungarian Só (salt) from the twelfth century on and later "place of salt" by the Ottomans, who regarded Tuzla's salt exports for significant regional tax revenue.

Salt is extracted from underground beds either by

solution mining
using water to dissolve the salt. In solution mining, the salt reaches the surface as brine, from which the water is evaporated, leaving salt crystals.

History

The Sečovlje Saltworks on the Northern Adriatic Sea were probably started in Antiquity and were first mentioned in 804 in the document on Placitum of Riziano.

Ancient world

Early Neolithic salt production, dating to approximately 6,000 BCE, has been identified at an excavation in Poiana Slatinei-Lunca, Romania.[3]

Solnitsata, the earliest known town in Europe, was built around a salt production facility. Located in present-day Bulgaria, the town is thought by archaeologists to have accumulated wealth by supplying salt throughout the Balkans.[4]

Salt was of high value to the

Greeks, Tamils, Chinese, Hittites[5]
and other peoples of antiquity. In the early years of the
Roman Legions were sometimes paid in salt[6][7][8] is baseless; a salārium may have been an allowance paid to Roman soldiers for the purchase of salt, but even that is not well established.[9][10]

Vertical derricks and drilling rig from Qing dynasty Zigong, China extracting brine from deep underground wells.

During the late Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages salt was a precious commodity carried along the salt roads into the heartland of the Germanic tribes. Caravans consisting of as many as forty thousand camels traversed four hundred miles of the Sahara bearing salt to inland markets in the Sahel, sometimes trading salt for slaves: Timbuktu was a noted salt and slave market.[11]

Salt in Chinese history was both a driver of technological development and a stable source of revenue for the imperial government.[12]

Cities and wars

Salt production on Læsø, Denmark (reconstruction)

Salt has played a prominent role in determining the power and location of the world's great cities.

salt mines and thus became the entrepôt for much of the world's salt in the 19th century.[2]

The salt contributed to the cities’ and even entire countries’ wealth. One of the best examples of that is Poland and its Salt Mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia. During times of prosperity the mines controlled by the enterprise of Cracow Saltmines[13] supplied up to 1/3 of the income to the treasury. The extraction of salt existed since 13th century and lasted up to 1964. In 1996 the exploitation was ceased entirely.

Cities, states and duchies along the salt roads exacted heavy duties and taxes for the salt passing through their territories. This practice even caused the formation of cities, such as the city of

bishops of Freising no longer needed their salt revenue.[2]

The gabelle—a hated French salt tax—was enacted in 1286 and maintained until 1790. Because of the gabelles, common salt was of such a high value that it caused mass population shifts and exodus, attracted invaders and caused wars.[2]

In

Lewis and Clark set out for the Louisiana Territory, President Jefferson in his address to Congress mentioned a mountain of salt, 180 miles long and 45 wide, supposed to lie near the Missouri River, which would have been of inconceivable value, as a reason for their expedition.[14]

During the

British salt tax.[2]

Salt production in England

See also: -wich town and History of salt in Middlewich

Evidence of Early Neolithic salt pans, dating to 3766–3647 BCE, have been unearthed in Yorkshire.

salt marshes of Bitterne Manor on the banks of the River Itchen in Hampshire, where salt production was a notable industry.[20]

Wich and wych are names associated (but not exclusively) with

Droitwich in Worcestershire. Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich and Droitwich are known as the "Domesday Wiches" due to their mention in the Domesday Book of 1086, "an indication of the significance of the salt-working towns in the economy of the region, and indeed of the country".[1]
Salt was very important to Europe because it was hard to trade with Africa and they needed to produce it themselves.

Salt trade

imperial China and retained its significance until 20th century.[21][22]

During modern times, it became more profitable to sell salted food than pure salt. Thus sources of food to salt went hand in hand with salt making. The British controlled saltworks in the

Bahamas as well as North American cod fisheries.[2]

The search for oil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries used the technology and methods pioneered by salt miners, even to the degree that they looked for oil where salt domes were located.[2]

Salt production

A 'zouthuisje', i.e. little salt-house, used for salt making today. Many of these structures can be found near Twekkelo in Twente, the Netherlands.

On an industrial scale, salt is produced in one of two principal ways: the evaporation of salt water (brine), or mining. Evaporation can be by solar evaporation,[23] or using some heating device.

Solar evaporation of seawater

In the correct climate (one for which the ratio of evaporation to rainfall is suitably high), it is possible to use solar evaporation of sea water to produce salt. Brine is evaporated in a linked set of ponds until the solution is sufficiently concentrated by the final pond so that the salt crystallizes on the pond's floor.

Open pan production from brine

Main article:
Open pan salt making

One of the traditional methods of salt production in more temperate climates is using open pans.[24] In open-pan production, salt brine is heated in large, shallow open pans. The earliest examples of this date back to prehistoric times and the pans were made of either a type of ceramic called briquetage, or lead. Later examples were made from iron. This change coincided with a change from wood to coal for the purpose of heating the brine.[25] Brine would be pumped into the pans and concentrated by the heat of the fire burning underneath. As crystals of salt formed, these would be raked out and more brine added.

Closed pan production under vacuum

The open pan salt works has effectively been replaced with a closed pan system where the brine solution is evaporated under a partial vacuum.[26]

Salt mines

In the second half of the 19th century, industrial mining and new drilling techniques made the discovery of more and deeper deposits possible, increasing

mine salt's share of the market. Although mining salt was generally more expensive than extracting it from brine via solar evaporation of seawater, the introduction of this new source reduced the price of salt due to a reduction of monopolization. Extraction of salt from brine is still heavily used; for example, vacuum salt produced by British Salt in Middlewich has 57% of the UK market for salt used in cooking.[27]

Salt from ashes

Main article: Asín tibuok

In traditional salt production in the

túltul (or dúkdok).[28][29]

Other salt uses

See also: Bath salts

The earliest systematic exposition of the different kinds of salts, its uses, and the methods of its extraction was published in China around 2700 BCE.[citation needed] Hippocrates encouraged his fellow healers to use salt water to heal various ailments by immersing their patients in sea water. The ancient Greeks continued this, and in 1753, English author and physician Richard Russell published The Uses of Sea Water in which he declared that salt was a "common defence against the corruption of…bodies" and "contribut[es] greatly to all cures".[30]

In

highland, whence traders distributed them throughout the rest of Ethiopia, as far south as the Kingdom of Kaffa.[31]
These salt blocks served as a form of currency.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Domesday Book". Domesday Book. Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-14-200161-9
  3. ^ Weller, Oliver (Dec 2005). "The earliest salt production in the world: an early Neolithic exploitation in Poiana Slatinei-Lunca, Romania". Antiquity. 79.
  4. The Los Angeles Times
    . Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  5. ^ Alper Gölbaş (1970-01-01). "Anadolu Kültür Oluşumunda Tuzun Rolü- The Role of Salt in the Formation of the Anatolian Culture | Alper Gölbaş". Batman Üniversitesi Yaşam Bilimleri Dergisi, Batman University Journal of Life Sciences. Academia.edu. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  6. ^ Bloch, David. "Economics of NaCl: Salt made the world go round". Mr Block Archive. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  7. ^ Bloch, David. "Salt and the evolution of money". Mr Block Archive. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  8. ^ "The history of salt production at Droitwich Spa". BBC. 2010-01-21. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
  9. ^ "salary, n.". Oxford English Dictionary.
  10. ^ Gainsford, Peter (11 January 2017). "Salt and salary: were Roman soldiers paid in salt?". Kiwi Hellenist: Modern Myths about the Ancient World. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  11. ISBN 9780874368857
    .
  12. ISBN 9789004231931
    ), pp. 273-275.
  13. ^ "Cracow Saltworks Museum in Wieliczka".
  14. ^ "Account of Louisiana". Library of Congress. p. 12. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  15. ISSN 0003-598X
    .
  16. ISSN 0003-598X
    .
  17. ^ Marshall, Michael. "Ancient Britons extracted salt from seawater more than 5500 years ago". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-03-31.
  18. S2CID 161705802
    .
  19. ISBN 0-9527813-4-4
    .
  20. ISBN 9780300181913
    .
  21. ISBN 9781139497688
    .
  22. ISBN 9789814383844
    .
  23. ^ "Solar Salt production". Salt Institute. Archived from the original on 2009-01-31. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  24. ^ "Towards an understanding of open pan salt making". Lion Salt Works History & Heritage. Archived from the original on 2006-12-22. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  25. ^ "Early Salt Making". Lion Salt Works History & Heritage. Archived from the original on 2006-12-22. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  26. ^ "Vacuum Pan Salt Refining". Salt Institute. Archived from the original on 2009-02-02. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
  27. ^ The Competition Commission. "Factors affecting rivalry in the relevant market prior to the merger" (PDF). British Salt Limited and New Cheshire Salt Works Limited: A report on the acquisition by British Salt Limited of New Cheshire Salt Works Limited. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-01-09. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
  28. ^ Reynaldo, Jerricho. "Guimaras: The Sweet Taste of Summer". asianTraveler. Archived from the original on 19 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  29. ^ "Food for Thought: Do You Know The Guimaras Ingredient Tultul?". Bitesized.ph. 20 July 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  30. OCLC 181801978
    .
  31. Pankhurst, Richard K. P.
    (1968). Economic History of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University.

Further reading
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