Matt 5-13 salt - historien
Salt: A World History
By Mark Kurlansky
Walker & Company (2002)
For much of the world’s human occupation, salt has driven engineering, science, exploration and environmental degradation. To the modern world, few things are more ubiquitous than salt but allowing Mark Kurlansky to take us on a discovery of the major roles salt played for our ancestors, indeed through the middle of the 20th Century, provides us with an eye-opening ride. Kurlansky is a food journalist and his love for the history of food is evident in his journey to reveal the forgotten world of our most widely used spice.
Weaving together many threads of history, science and recipes can get confusing. Often there are overlaps, especially in time, as the author explores chunks of history in different geographical regions connected by trade. Considering the length of this book, a reader could read a chapter here or there and get a great story. But to fully appreciate salt’s global and historical impact, nothing but the entire book will do. He begins in Ancient China where engineering feats all in the pursuit of salt, including the harnessing of Natural Gas and deep drilling, took Europe centuries to match. After the birth of soy sauce (soy beans preserved in salt), Kurlansky then moves on to Ancient Egypt, the Roman world, and beyond.
The Roman Empire understood the political and economic value of salt; they established salt works (or improved those they found) wherever they conquered. Salted fish became the staple food for a hungry army on the move. In fact, the army often paid soldiers with salt so it isn’t surprising when Kurlansky points out that the Latin for salt, “sal,” is the root of our word “salary.”
Much of the trade throughout the Mediterranean had salt for common currency. Medieval empires thrived on salt monopolies and trade. Exploration was often driven by the need to find new sources of salt to decrease or eliminate dependence on foreign sources. Cities and countries could rise or fall depending on their ability to make or trade salt or salted products. With cheese (which began as a way to preserve milk by using salt) and salted fish, explorers, soldiers and fishermen (often the same people) could travel further than before. Fishing boats didn’t have to come directly back to port after a catch; they could salt it and move on to new fishing grounds which in turn often led to the discovery of new lands.
Salt also contributed to the slave trade; salted fish fed slaves on plantations and often served as return ballast (to help keep the ships at constant weight) for boats delivering slaves. Much of the labor for producing salt also came from slaves although Kurlansky points out that salt gathering could be so politically charged that the ship’s crew was responsible for obtaining and protecting it rather than the slaves.
Governments sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully, applied salt taxes to increase their revenues. Kurlansky points out that political upheaval often resulted from unjust salt taxes and tariffs: from the “gabelle” tax in France to Gandhi’s successful salt campaign that eventually led to Indian Independence from Britain. Salt tax breaks were often used as political bribes to bring much desired salt-making territories into alliances. In the newly “discovered” South America, Cortes admired a tribe called the Tlatoque because in order to stay independent of the powerful Aztec Empire they had to abstain from salt, which could only be obtained from the Aztecs as the Tlatoque had no salt sources of their own.
In all this history, bringing us to the modern day giant Morton Salt Company, references are made to the environmental degradation that accompanied salt production and trade. Forests were often the first casualty as the most common way of producing salt was to boil the brine. Natural Gas and coal were also used. Cheshire, England, was so proud of their salt industry that they bragged of the black clouds (from the furnaces) darkening their skies. The pumping of brine soon led to sinkholes which were often found several miles away in unsuspecting neighborhoods. Rock salt mines carved out huge chambers underground which often moonlighted as ballrooms.
The extraction of metals commonly required salt and the closer the source to the metals, the greater the mining operation. River banks and swamps faced certain degradation from workers. Several Caribbean islands were soon overcome by desertification as their natural forests were cut down to supply the hungry furnaces. By-products of salt production were dumped back into the environment. Nonnative species, even camels, were introduced near salt works as enterprising salt plantation owners or traders tried to recreate “home.” After reading Salt, its difficult to imagine what the spice is not responsible for.
Filled with fascinating facts and anecdotes, it is easy to get lost in the place-names and threads of history found in this book. Additional maps would have been helpful I often wished for a pullout version to have beside me as I read. A rather large omission is the lack of references; a 12+ page bibliography is found at the end but specific sources are not acknowledged except for the recipes scattered throughout. The last few chapters felt more haphazardly put together than the rest of the book but all in all, this is an enjoyable read. And you will never look at history, or table salt, in the same way again.
Reviewed by Beci Wright
For Environmental Science 204, Bellevue Community College, 2002
