Salt: A World History

Kurlansky cites the fondness the Chinese have for claiming to have invented many things first, and gives the Chinese origin story of Pangu: “Chinese salt history begins with the mythical Huangdi, who invented writing, weaponry, and transportation” (18). As early as 6000 B.C., there was a saltworks in the province of Shanxi. However, the actual act of putting salt on food directly is rare in Chinese history. It is more common to add it during the actual cooking, or to sauces.

Salt was used by the Chinese to pickle vegetables. Pickling is technically known as “lactic acid fermentation” (21). Without salt, alcohol results, rather than pickling. Salt was also the solution the Chinese found for transporting eggs, which could be tricky. An egg encased in brine for a month will gain the firmer consistency of a hard-boiled egg and can last for up to 100 days.

Li Bing, the governor of the Shu province, built the first dam around 250 B.C., which allowed eastern Sichuan to become a hub of commerce. Li Bing found that natural brine did not come from the pools where they found it. It came from underground. The first salt wells were drilled on his orders in 252 BC. Workers who drilled the wells would get inexplicably sick, and came to believe that the wells were portals that evil spirits could emerge from. Kurlansky writes that “[s]alt makers learned to drill and shore up a narrow shaft, which allowed them to go deeper,” (26) extracting the brine with a long bamboo tube, as bamboo is resistant to salt. The piping system eventually made possible the invention of irrigation and plumbing systems. The Chinese also discovered that salt could be used with explosive properties, leading to the invention of gunpowder.

After China was unified, the new state was “the culmination of centuries of intellectual debate about the nature of government and the rights of rulers. At the center of that debate was salt” (28). Salt taxes had been a source of government revenue since 2000 BC.

A philosophy known as legalism emerged in response to Confucianism: “The legalists insisted that earthly institutions effectively wielding power were what guaranteed a state’s survival” (30). Legalists wanted to eliminate the aristocracy and reward merit. A prominent legalist named Shang introduced the idea of fixing the price of salt high enough so that it could be sold at a profit after being imported into China. The policy was adopted during the Qin dynasty, by the emperor: “It is the first known instance in history of a state-controlled monopoly of a vital commodity” (31).

In 81 B.C., something like a modern-day think tank comprised of sixty participants split between Confucianism and legalism was convened by Emperor Zhaodi to debate the salt monopoly. The Confucian complaints centered on the word “profit.” Why should a state profit in any way other than the enriching of its citizens’ lives? Thinkers on the other side found it irrational to base government on morality. Zhaodi believed that people should be controlled by laws and harsh punishments.

Zhaodi continued the monopolies, but they were abolished in 44 B.C. by his successor, Yuandi. However, three years later, the royal treasury was empty and the monopolies returned. 

“To the Egyptians, a dead body was the vessel connecting earthly life to the afterlife” (36). Preservation of the dead body was ideal. Egyptian tombs had two parts: the upper was for offerings, and the lower was for the corpse. Funeral feasts were prepared in the upper areas, which gave clues to the Egyptian diet. The tombs of the upper classes often had wood containers filled with salt.

The Egyptians also pickled vegetables with brine, but “may have been the first to cure meat and fish with salt” (38). They were the first to preserve food on a large scale: years of famine had to be prepared for. They were also responsible for making olives soft enough to eat and enjoy, which was done with brine. They made salt by evaporating seawater from the Nile Delta, but also procured it through trade.

Kurlansky describes the mummification process in detail, proceeding from the most expensive method to the “discount technique” (42). The more thorough technique involved removal of the brain and the washing of the internal cavities. The more basic method, for the poor, was to wash out the intestines and store the body in salt for seventy days.

Salting fowl and fish opened up new economies as Egypt exported these commodities to the Middle East and trading with the Phoenicians. Shipping salt is a heavy, cumbersome operation, and when waterways were not available, camels were used. Crossing the Sahara Desert was almost impossible before the use of camels.

Ibn Batuta, “the greatest Arab-language traveler of the Middle Ages” (48), spoke of a city called Taghaza, which was built entirely of salt. Given its location, salt blocks were the only building materials available, and were brought from a quarry many miles away.

There were many types of salts, and the Africans were well-versed in their varieties and purposes, “but they always treat any salt as a valuable substance that must not be wasted” (50). 

In 1573, a man was found by salt miners in the Tuermberg Mountains, outside of an Austrian town called Hallein, a name that means, “salt work” (52). The body was perfectly preserved and dressed in bright clothing. It was one of three that would be discovered, and dated back to 400 B.C. The bodies had belonged to miners who were Celts. Celts had typically been viewed by history as brutes and barbarians. In 1846, seven more bodies were found near another salt mine near Hallein. Both findings would reveal that the Celts had been a salt trading—and primarily a salted-food trading—people. Similarly preserved bodies were found in the Uyghur region of China, confounding academics who believed the Celts had never ventured so far from Europe.

The Celts were skilled miners, but less advanced in the art of statecraft. There was no real Celtic nation, only tribes that were often feuding with one another. Julius Caesar eventually destroyed the Celts and brought them under Roman rule: “Celtic inventions—in salt mining, iron, agriculture, trade, horsemanship—enriched the Roman empire” (60).