How Salt Defined World History
How Salt Defined World History
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When we talk about things being traded across empires and bringing merchants to faraway lands, we usually think of resources like gold or silver or diamonds, but what about salt?
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“Suvaco do Cristo” by Kevin Macleod
“Caravan Trails” by Sight of Wonder*
“The Search for Self” by Jon Björk*
“The Wild West” by Ross Bugden
“Sea Adventures” by Bonnie Grace*
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Artwork at 4:00 by lukefaxon
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👕 MERCH!
https://crowdmade.com/collections/kha…
📖 SOURCES:
https://seasalt.com/history-of-salt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History…
https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-…
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_road
Salt, by Mark Kurlansky (2002)
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Content
0.16 -> When you think of salt, you probably think
of something you use to flavor your fried
4.02 -> potato slices or that thing that makes seawater
undrinkable, but this combination of an explosive
9.41 -> metal and a deadly gas gives us what is in
a sense the only rock that us humans eat,
15.639 -> and this little rock has come to build empires,
define economies, pave trade routes, and both
21.33 -> start and decide the outcomes of bitter wars.
24.17 -> It was never actually more valuable than gold,
but in a way it had an arguably much stronger
30.16 -> impact on history.
31.859 -> Ever wondered how Venice built such a huge
trading empire?
34.36 -> Salt!
35.36 -> How India got its independence from the British?
37.37 -> Salt!
38.37 -> Why America wanted independence from the British?
40.53 -> Also salt!
41.53 -> How Spain suffered from hyperinflation after
the conquest of the Inca Empire?
44.8 -> Well actually that was silver, but you get
the idea.
48.26 -> [Brought to you by NordVPN]
52.65 -> So why do we attach so much importance to
this little white mineral?
57.989 -> Well for one, salt is essential for muscle
control, neurotransmissions, and maintaining
69.68 -> proper fluid balance.
70.83 -> And a low salt presence in blood means hyponatremia,
a condition which can include nausea, headaches,
77.66 -> fatigue, heart problems, and other lovely
symptoms.
80.75 -> While salt is important for the functioning
of our bodies however, that’s far from the
84.711 -> only thing salt can be used for, and indeed
not what would come to kick off the importance
90.14 -> of the salt trade.
91.76 -> The same thing that makes too much salt dangerous
to us also makes salt in a sense the original
97.73 -> preservative, as it absorbs water, leaving
whatever it touches dry and inhospitable to
103.2 -> bacteria.
104.2 -> This made salt an important asset in a world
where refrigeration was only really feasible
107.82 -> in these regions.
109.42 -> Salt allowed early civilizations to store
perishable goods like meats for longer periods
114.11 -> of time, allowing them in a sense to declare
independence from the seasons!
118.82 -> Or at least from seasonal food shortages,
as well as transport food to faraway places
122.81 -> in a 5 km/h hour world.
125.21 -> Salt however isn’t all that easy to extract,
now sure you could go to your nearest ocean
130.44 -> and boil off a bucket of water, but what if
you don’t live near an ocean?
134.59 -> Or what if you do live near an ocean but the
climate isn’t hot and/or dry enough?
138.23 -> If that’s the case, you’re going to have
to rely on special salt deposits, which could
143.17 -> give an edge to any city near one.
146.25 -> While this was the case in most countries,
China started collecting salt by evaporating
151.89 -> seawater as far back as the 27th century BC,
and this early salt trade actually gave rise
158.37 -> to some of the earliest forms of taxation,
with revenue from these salt taxes allowing
163.14 -> them to finance wars, expeditions, and construction
projects.
166.82 -> Plus I suppose it’s a little fitting that
one of the first things to be taxed was salt
170.43 -> of all things.
171.64 -> At the same time, Egypt was also harvesting
salt from seawater, as well as from rock salt
177.17 -> in the desert, with one large source being
the Wadi El Natrun, with a large deposit of
182.99 -> a particular type of salt named after this
valley; natron, as well as the Latinized name
188.89 -> for the element sodium, natrium (which explains
the Na).
194.52 -> The Egyptians also quickly learned of salt’s
ability to preserve meats, and naturally also
202.711 -> used them to help preserve their oh-so famous
mummies.
206.13 -> Over in Rome however, the expansion of the
city during the early years of the Republic
210.44 -> necessitated the construction of a road across
the peninsula to the town of Castrum Truentinum
215.79 -> (now Martinsicuro) on the coast of the Adriatic,
which largely due to its shallow depths had
221.95 -> a higher salt content, allowing for easier
harvesting of salt.
226.79 -> Now we’ll get back to this in a second…
229 -> This road, which had already been in use for
several centuries as a trail by a people known
232.63 -> as the Sabines, was christened the Via Salaria
in the 3rd century BC, a not-so subtle hint
238.56 -> as to its purpose.
239.61 -> And in fact the Latin word ‘salis’ or
‘sāl’ gives us many words for things
244.22 -> we don’t generally even associate with salt,
like for instance a certain dish of salted
251.209 -> greens or ‘herba salata’ giving us salad,
or *sausages* which you might accompany with
258.25 -> a *sauce*, and in fact the word salary also
seems to have a connection to salt, though
263.74 -> etymologists aren’t actually quite sure
how or why.
266.32 -> A common explanation is that Roman soldiers
were paid in salt, as it was so valuable,
270.76 -> but there aren’t actually any records of
this, though some propose that a ‘salarium’
276.35 -> was given as money meant to buy salt, as well
as other goods, but again there aren’t any
281.34 -> written records on this.
283.05 -> Back on the topic of the Via Salarium though,
this road was one of the earliest of many
287.03 -> different salt roads, connecting salt deposits
with major cities and port towns largely across
292.18 -> Europe.
293.18 -> One of the most notable of these salt roads
was the Alte Salzstraße (Old Salt Route)
300.389 -> connecting the salt mines in Lüneburg to
the port city of Lübeck, both in the modern-day
304.1 -> German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
306.43 -> This route proved essential to the cities
on the Baltic coast, in turn allowing for
311.37 -> the prosperity of the Hanseatic League.
314.44 -> Speaking of which, the Adriatic…
316.98 -> huh, maybe someone should set up a trading
empire here.
320.26 -> “Lo farò!” said Venice, who for 1,100
years ruled a maritime republic situated throughout
325.41 -> the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.
327.9 -> In the early years the Venetian Republic prospered
from the salt trade, with the aforementioned
333.68 -> abundance of salt in the Adriatic and especially
in the lagoon surrounding Venice, even pioneering
338.69 -> a new technique of extracting salt from seawater,
by evaporating the water away in stages, transferring
344.48 -> the brine into different pools as the salt
concentration grew more and more, in turn
349.77 -> allowing Venice to expand its influence and
import spices from the east to be traded among
354.55 -> the European market.
356.56 -> The Vikings also took over salt deposits across
northern Europe, as an important staple on
361.07 -> Viking voyages was salted cod, as cod was
a less fatty fish, and could therefore be
366.979 -> dried out and salted easier to be preserved
for a long time.
369.92 -> It wasn’t just in Europe or China where
the salt trade made empires prosper on the
374.44 -> economic stage, with both Ethiopia and the
Ghana Empire (in modern day Mali and Mauritania)
380.18 -> growing crazy rich with the establishment
of camel-based trade routes to other regions.
385.09 -> Of course, many towns and cities within Europe
would be named after salt, reflecting their
389.59 -> proximity to salt mines, such as Salzburg
from the German “Salz”, or Tuzla from
395.99 -> the Turkish “tuz”, or Mellieħa from the
Maltese “melħ”, and many English towns
400.73 -> with names ending in “-wich”, like with
Droitwich, Middlewich, Northwich, and Leftwich,
405.33 -> though this suffix can also refer to the trading
of goods other than salt.
409.46 -> Not every country however was quite so lucky
in this regard, with Sweden for instance briefly
414.63 -> establishing a salt refinery in Saint-Barthélemy
in the Caribbean.
418.66 -> While Sweden’s colonial ambitions didn’t
come to bear as much as hoped, Britain’s
422.49 -> early colonies prospered off salt they were
able to harvest on their own, however self-sufficient
427.9 -> colonies are colonies that could potentially
break away, so Britain made sure to keep British
432.24 -> salt cheaper than local salt, later only providing
the settlers enough salt to produce goods
436.53 -> for themselves and Britain, but suspiciously
never enough for export to other countries.
442.11 -> Tea taxes are of course the most well known
of motivations for the American Revolution,
446.82 -> but taxes on salt were also a motivation,
and a major political weapon in the ensuing
451.36 -> war for independence.
453.33 -> Salt had also proved an effective political
weapon in Mahatma Gandhi’s fight for India’s
457.85 -> independence (or India-pendence) from the
British, with his march to the sea to collect
462.94 -> salt from the beach-- something the British
had banned in order to establish a monopoly
466.55 -> over salt and discourage protests-- itself
sparking more protests for independence, but
471.26 -> that’s definitely a story for another time.
473.9 -> Salt has been used as a political tool by
many empires over thousands of years, and
478.38 -> to many ancient cultures was (and still is)
considered sacred.
482.83 -> Nowadays however, with the help of modern
technology, salt has gone from something civilizations
489.24 -> use to wipe out enemy cities, to something
we use to wipe out enemy… road ice.
494.38 -> We have gone from salt being essentially a
luxury product to something so abundant that
499.25 -> many of us today are in danger of eating too
much of it.
503.18 -> [AD]
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