NaCl - Common SALT [MONEY].... made the world
go round....
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At the beginning of the Roman period the sea level was at least 2m below present
levels. Salt making was well established on the Western European coasts,
and the Mediterranean. These vast flat coastal areas were gradually inundated
until by about 400 AD, (what were to become) the Meers, Broads, Clairs,
etc and the traditional Roman salt sites Ostia, Aquilea, Ravenna, had all
been flooded. Rome's port was moved inland three times. The effects of
this sea level rise to nearly 2 m above present day levels were catastrophic
for western European salt makers. During the 'Dark Ages' salt traffic almost
disappeared and the coasts of Britain and France were deserted.
The population density fell in spite of an influx of Germanic tribes from
the north. Rome had established 'via salaria' to such god-forsaken places
as the Dead Sea, The African and Asian salt mines and desert lakes, had
become salt havens for European civilisation. From about 700 AD the sea
level was receding and coastal flats again re-emerged According to the
Doomesday book by 1086 hundreds of saltpans were again operating in the
English estuaries, and the 'Bay' salt of Bourgneuf began supplying a revitilised
Europe from Scandinavia to the Baltic. The vacuum was suddenly filled with
Norsemen taking over British and French salt centers, and even Arabs invaded
Spain finally clashing with the Normans in Provence. Ravenna, Venice, and
Yarmouth in England began to thrive, and concurrently the inland Asian
and African sources lost their importance to the maritime nations The data
available today, due to the Global warming alarm, has shown that these
eustatic sea level changes were possible, and Archaeological data is confirming
them. The salt monopolies established, at the turn of the millenium the
Gabelle [fr]/gabellum [latin]/quabala [arabic]/gavia [hebrew]]were the
basis for a 'relatively' ordered Medieval history. They were administered
by the monks, and their Royal siblings.
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ECONOMICS & SALT
Money - Trade - Monopolies [India]- Monopolies [France]-Transport -
Protection -Temple Industries -Slavery
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SALT as MONEY
Aristotle believed that primitive barter trading of standardised commodities 'hall-marked by an authority for correct weight and quality, represented the first use of "money". He says......."as the the necessaries of nature were not all easily ,portable, people agreed for the purposes of barter, mutually to give and receive some article which.....was practically easy to handle in the business of life.....
The trading of standardised pieces of salt, and metal have all the the aspects of dealing in what we call today....money. For instance bread-like moles of salt each weighing about 5 kg still circulate in Ethiopia as a means of payment
Pliny, following Aristotle's ideas, interpretes the use of salt as a means of payment ..."in Rome...the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word salary derives from it..." Plinius Naturalis Historia. XXXI
Marco Polo writes about salt as if it were a treasure as precious as gold.... "KAIN-du is aChinese province...where the money or currency they make use of, is thus prepared: their gold is formed into small rods and being cut to certain lengths , passes according to its weight without any stamp......This is their greater money. The smaller [money] is of the following description....in this country there are salt springs from which they manufacture salt by boiling it in small pans. When the water has boiled for an hour it becomes a kind of paste which is formed into cakes of the value of twopence each. These, flat on the lower, and convex on the upper side, are placed upon hot tiles near a fire in order to dry and harden. On these latter species of money , the stamp of the Grand Khan is impressed, and cannot be impressed by any other than its own officers. When these are carried to little frequented parts they obtain a 'saggio' of gold for sixty, fifty or even forty salt cakes....the further removed from the towns....."
MONEY represents VALUE
Means of payment or "primitive money" is not yet money in the sense of G.F.Knapp's "State theory" of money, however by introducing the "tally" system - "tessera" or "talea" in Latin, "kerbholz" [notched wood] in German, "Teomim" in Hebrew, "symbolon" in Greek, Chih-chi" in Chinese ....the essential element in the evolvement of money currency became possible, ..eg: the deposits of stored valued goods [salt] were represented by the tally, which then itself became a means of payment.
The tally was treated as currency. Metal coinage and
and paper money both became mass produced tallies, cheap to make but also
easy to imitate, and so eventually limited to "smaller money"
and used to pay individual tax. . A further refinement - the records of
the tally's existence, became tangible and transferrable, and so on, until
even work and services could be "notched up" as transferable
value. Thus paper 'value' began to replace the wooden tally system. It
was the State's "charter" which gave such transactions their
value and credibility, and state monopolies on valuable goods, which ensured
intrinsic value. For example, in China in 1329 AD, all tax was paid
in paper money, : 82% of which came from the salt monopoly
The Tally was conventionally,
a willow stick up to eight feet long and notched to indicate the sums loaned
to government, receipts and advances were normally only in very large amounts
in millions of pounds. On repayment the split halves were matched together.
Tallies were abolished only in 1826. The burning of these old tallies
caused [by chance] the destruction of the Houses of Parliament in 1834
MONOPOLIES
MONOPOLY
1 -
French Gabelle
Table Showing the results of Mr. Necker’s investigating
to the salt duties in France (18th century)
[108]
| Divisions of France | Number of inhabitants | Quality of quintals of salt consumed in each division | Price in each of the quintal of salt |
| Les Provinces de Grandes Gabelles | 8300000 | 760000 | 62 livres |
| Les Provinces de Petites Gabelles | 460000 | 60000 | 33 Livers 10 sous |
| Les Provinces de Salines | 1960000 | 275000 | 21 Livers 10 sous |
| Les Provinces Redimees | 4625000 | 830000 | from 6 to 12 livers |
| Les Provinces Franches | 4739000 | 830000 | from 2 to 9 livers |
| Les Pays of Quart Boullion | 585000 | 115000 | 16 livres |
| 24800000 | 3450000 |
N.B. A quintal of salt is equal to 100 French pounds which is equal to 112 English pounds, or 50 kg
MONOPOLY
2 - India
The Near East India Co.
HREF="http://www.oocities.org/~salt/saltpet.html">SALTPETER
NEWS
JAPANESE TO PRIVATIZE SALT BUSINESS.Japan's Finance Ministry has announced an end to the 90 year old monopoly of the salt market in March, 1997. Japan Tobacco Inc. has handled all salt sales in Japan; domestic Japanese production is done by seven companies who sell their salt to JTI. The new structure will provide "free competition amongst private companies engaged in importation, production and wholesale of salt," according to the Ministry. SIR96-2...........end
One day in 1938, a convoy was grinding slowly up the road from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem. Suddenly, the trucks halted and the armed escort disappeared into the hills. Shots rang out and shortly afterwards the police returned with the bodies of two Bedouin. There was a monopoly on salt in force the sergeant explained and the men were suspected of smuggling.
It was not the first such incident. The Palestine Post of December 4, 1938 carried this report: 'two British constables .. were acquitted of the killing of a Bedouin and the wounding of his companion, who were suspected of smuggling contraband salt...The policemen were pursueing the Bedouin, and they fired when the fugitives appeared to be getting away...'
. Why should a monopoly be so deadly? And why should men have risked their lives for a few kilos of salt?
Or was there some other compelling urge?
It is obvious that water - a prime necessity equal in importance to salt - and food as well as additional ingredients of salts and vitamins are indispensable. However it is SALT which governs the amount of water needed in the human body -
A Salt monopoly still exists in Israel today - THE DANKNER GROUP
Until salt was mined in quantity in comparatively recent times, its availability was subject to vagaries of climate and environment. A combination of strong sunshine and low humidity or an extension of peat marshes were necessary for winning salt from the sea - the most plentiful source - by solar evaporation or boiling. In addition, ocean levels have fluctuated; a rise of nearly a hundred metres took place at the end of the last Ice Age, with many smaller local movements of the Earth's crust and worldwide sea level changes at the coasts. Mines and inland salt springs being scarce and often located in hostile areas like the Dead Sea or the salt mines in the Sahara desert, they required well organised security for transport, storage and distribution.
Possession of mines, springs, lakes or sea shore pans was not only a fortunate inheritance or conquest; it had invaluable worth and considerable power, which often brought deprivation, unrest and misery to ordinary people through oppressive taxation and monopolistic practice.
Since early times, the alkali salts have had a direct and important place in the technology of peace and war, as for example in the manufacture of leather, glass and gunpowder. With the discovery of coal and oil as alternative sources of heat for evaporation of salt instead of sunshine and wood fires and the development of the modern chemical industry, they provided the raw materials for soap, textile dyes, synthetic rubber, water softeners and much else. Recently, the use of artificial fertilizers have helped to grow more food for a world population that has increased by nearly an order of magnitude. From a modest daily personal requirement of about 10 grams per person [for immediate body requirements] , our world individual share has soared to 250 grams a day and about 94% of the world's salt production is now used in industry. Today in the USA this individual share has reached over 500 grams a day.
Because salt is so widely and cheaply available today, its importance in less advanced societies and in previous times, is easily underestimated. Yet the establishment of the early settlements, the rise of agriculture and animal domestication, population migrations and the development of industry have all been closely associated with changes in the supply of salt.
Mankind can live without gold...but not without Salt -[CASSIODORUS]
TRANSPORT - "The silent Trade"
It is probably not coincidence that amongst the earliest known urban settlements were sites around Jericho and that they spread from the Dead Sea up the Jordan Valley. Rivers were then the only practical routes for bulk cargoes, salt going in one direction ad farm produce in the other. The great navigable rivers all over the world were used in this way. In Egypt, early farming depended on boats bringing salt up the Nile from the swamps of the river delta as well as by caravan traveling from the salt lakes in the desert. The hinterland of France was supplied with salt carried up the Rhone from the Camargue; the interior of Russia by a rout up the Dnieper River from the Black Sea.
Overland, caravans of camels, horses, donkeys and llamas carried salt across deserts and over mountains to salt-hungry populations b, . Until very recently a great caravan of 2000 camels, each bearing a load of 150 kg, made the 700 km journey to the market at Timbuctu from the Taoeni salt centers in the Sahara twice a year. It carried 300 tons of salt for the Nigerian farmers and returned with food for the salt miners, each convoy being guarded against robbers by a battalion of the French Foreign Legion. , One 150-ton ship could do the work of a thousand camels and so salt was an important item in ocean-going commerce. During antiquity , great fleets served the salt and salt-fish trade in the Mediterranean . Later, in the Middle Ages , a similar traffic (mainly the Hanseatic fleet) cruised along the Atlantic and Baltic coasts from France to bring the “Bay Salt” to the Netherlands, Britian, Scandinavia and Russia. Spain and Portugal traded salt to Africa, India and the Americas. Britian , a latecomer, joined in the trade by shipping salt from Cheshire where it was produced with the help of coal.
| Table Comparison of ancient and modern transport methods Quantity(tons) Means of transport Men employed Velocity Period 10000 1 Liberty ship 50 20 km/h present 10000 60000 camels 5000 2 km/h ancient desert transport up to present 10000 30 ships (Hansa) 1000 10 km/h 13th to 15th century 10000 100 river trains (barges) 5000 horses 5000 Germany, 18th century 10000 200 motor trucks rail/road 250 50 km/h present |
Table Comparison of ancient and modern transport methods
Quantity(tons) Means of transport Men employed Velocity Period
10000 1 Liberty ship 50 20 km/h present
10000 60000 camels 5000 2 km/h ancient
desert transport up to present
10000 30 ships (Hansa) 1000 10 km/h 13th to 15th
century
10000 100 river trains (barges) 5000 horses 5000 Germany, 18th
century
10000 200 motor trucks rail/road 250 50 km/h present
Since salt was produced in relatively few places often far from urban and agricultural areas where it is required and consumed, transport was an important part of its cost. Salt derived from ocean water could mostly be loaded onto ships, and it paid to transport the salt over great distances by sea. During the Middle Ages, for example salt was brought from Spain and France to England, Holland, Scandinavia, and Russia by the vessels of the Hansa fleet [up to 800 tons] Cheshire salt was shipped from England to the Indies, and from Portugal to Brazil during the 18th and 19th centuries, and from Spain, Sardinia, Turkey and Egypt to Japan. Where river transport was possible inland sources were cheap enough. Those parts of the great continents that were not easily connected by river or later by rail, to sources such as inner Africa, had to use animals of burden such as mules, camels, Llama, and horses. A caravan of a thousand camels cared for by one hundred men was the equivilent to a ship carrying 150 tons of salt before the Industrial revolution To study the important role that salt played in the history of man, one would be well advised to study the history of the gold trade of the flourishing trans-Saharan market.: between the North African littoral and the African Kingdoms to the south of the desert.The great salt caravan routes linked the cities. Berbers, Arabs, Jews, and Christians drew on the wealth of the Sudanese who live west of Lake Chad . The gold came from "Wangara" and the four gold districts of Bambuk,Bura,Lobi and Ashanti.
The methods of trading were known as the "silent trade", or "dumb barter". Similar methods were known in the silk trade.
The procedure was this: when the merchants reached [the river] they beat great drums to summon the natives, who would not appear in the presence of the strangers, The merchants arranged their goods [salt] in piles, and retired out of site. The natives then appeared and put a heap of gold beside each pile, and retired. If the mechants were satisfied, they took the gold beating their drums to signal completion. Moorish proverb....The price of a negro ...is salt
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MRBLOCH SALT ARCHIVE, is researching the significance, of SALT [NaCl] through the period 1000 BC . up to the Industrial Revolution.
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