Comments on: The History of Salt

By: ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » The History of Male Circumcision, Part 1

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:43:51 +0000

[...] covered the histories of salt and chili pepper and other various topics previously, but in this post I’m going to take a [...]

By: Dick Hanneman

Dick Hanneman — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 07:03:52 +0000

What a great discussion. If you like the topic of salt in history, you may want to visit the Salt Institute’s website discussion on this topic.

Dick Hanneman
President
Salt Institute

By: Curzon

Curzon — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:37:09 +0000

Alec: I can pretty much guarantee that there is zero correlation. Disease, accidents, malnutrition, lack of proper medical care, and all the other occupational hazards of pre-modern life were responsible for the young death rate. Also, I find it highly unlikely that pre-moderns consumed more salt than moderns, considering how plentiful salt is today and how is plays a part in every meal, whereas it was once a rare commodity.

Heart attacks are an old man’s disease — you have to live long enough to die from it. There is a certain breed of environmentalist that moans about the rise in the cancer rate in the 20th century and attributes it to toxins, pollution, radiation, etc. That’s also unlikely — more accurately, it was until very recent that people lived long enough to die from cancer.

By: Zhu Xi

Zhu Xi — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 21:05:52 +0000

I love that museum. The tobacco part was cool because it showed both how differently Japanese processed tobacco right from the 1500’s on. They still process it differently and thus have a tabacco which doesn’t seem to cause cancer!!
It also showed the trade routes by small ship, which demonstated how complex and developed commerce was from early times. Boats were so common everyone had to learn to swim.
And yes salt is an amazing story, it’s economic value being so high for so long and now becoming so common and cheap that we can use it for swimmng pools.
Is this the future? Will science and technology make all are needs this available?

By: alec

alec — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:44:58 +0000

I’ve always wondered this, and now is my chance to think out loud, but did the heavy use of salt contribute to the lower life expectancies of Western Europe / America before refrigeration? My thoughts are that sodium when consumed regularly, is quite bad for the heart and for blood pressure, and this may have had detrimental effects on people’s health when meats were saturated with salt to preserve them. But, just a thought…

By: Nathan Hamm

Nathan Hamm — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 19:57:50 +0000

I'm sure many of you are aware of Mark Kurlansky's book on the history of salt. I've not read it myself, but I thought I'd throw in a recommendation for his book on the important role cod played in European history. (It's been important enough to fight recent wars over.)

By: vijay

vijay — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:43:34 +0000

Salt of the Earth!

My thoughts “â�� not supported but can be.

Aside from the quasi fact that life originated from the ocean
Even elephants and all other animals need mineral salts
It is the electrolyte that lets the blood flow thin.
Our body contains more water than the proportion of sea to land! Chew on that.
Artificially iodized salt is inferior to sea salt in its mineral content.
A bath in the ocean keeps all skin ailments,
I believe it is one of the reasons we flock to the beach
No Goiter,
No thyroid deficiency
The Brits fell into the trap instead of staying with pickled cabbage and their ships
Gandhi’s salt march was to claim boundaries over land.
Tobacco and all leafy products are for dreaming in ether.

“Ã�Å�Durf”Ã�? “â�� One does not need skull crackers to have salt??? (Don’t understand your reasoning “â�� or off the cuff remark! – illegal march!)
“Ã�Å�Curzon’- Tobacco and salt cannot be clubbed to the same reasoning. Tobacco is a commodity, salt is not!
I agree that both can be addictive!
Witness present day “Ã�Å�Tobacco discounts’ from Indian reservation (US) farmers.

By: Curzon

Curzon — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:44:41 +0000

Durf, it’s not all that simple — both tobacco and salt were monopolized by a state corp (formerly called the Japan Tobacco and Salt Company, hence the Tobacco and Salt museum). I think the monopoly ended in 1985 — or least that was when it became a public company. And the monopoly on salt was ended because of the end of the monopoly on tobacco; it was a joint package. Interesting article on that topic here.

By: Durf

Durf — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:32:14 +0000

Salt production and sales were controlled by a governmental monopoly in Japan until 1997. That always weirded me out. I mean, it’s salt. In the early Heisei era you could have re-created Gandhi’s illegal salt march, although you’d probably have trouble finding British troops to crack your skull for you.

By: andrewdb

andrewdb — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:43:39 +0000

A wonderful book is The Great Hedge of India – originally streching for hundreds of miles, it was an anti-smuggeling barrier for SALT under the Brits. It also has an excellent discussion of why salt was so important in diet and, in the heat, life itself, and thus why taxing it was so important. The author eventually finds a small part of it left standing today.

Available on Amazon here: http://tinyurl.com/skdzh

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:54:28 +0000

As another counterpoint, Alan Macfarlane's book on the extraordinary impact and importance of tea is very much worth reading. Here is the introduction to the Chinese edition of the book.

By: subadei

subadei — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:41:38 +0000

Amazing what we take for granted these days. “When it rains it pours.”

davesgonechina: http://www.jti.co.jp/Culture/museum/english/info/index.html

It’s in Shibuya (?!) and there’s the map. Say hi to Hachiko for me if you go.

By: Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 23:07:28 +0000

Fascinating. Herodotus talks about salt being produced along with bitumen and oil in a well near Susa some 2500 years ago..
http://www.greektexts.com/library/Herodotus/Erato/eng/187.html

By: davesgonechina

davesgonechina — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:51:47 +0000

As a classic counterpoint, consider sugar. Probably the first book to really consider the history of a basic commodity in the Imperial/Colonial era is Sweetness and Power, by Sidney Mintz. Definitely worth the read, even if it comes from a more Marxist perspective than you might like. Despite all the ideological stuff, it really is fascinating to see just how much of a sweet tooth Europe discovered. There are a couple of books on salt and I've been meaning to read them, whatever their initial assumptions. And I'm a sucker for museums - can't believe I didn't know Tokyo had a salt museum! Post me a map, will ya?