Early neolithic salt production, approximately 6,000 BCE, has been identified at an excavation in Romania. Solnitsata, the earliest known town in Europe, was built around a salt production facility. In present-day Bulgaria, in southeeast Europe, the town is thought by archaeologists to have accumulated wealth by supplying salt throughout the Balkans.
Salt held high value to the Jews, Greeks, Chinese, and Hittites, as well as other peoples of antiquity. The word salary comes from the Latin word for salt. Celibate Egyptian priests abstained from salt because it was believed to excite desire. Salt was often associated with fertility. The Romans called a man in love salax, in a salted state, which is the origin of the word salacious.
Homer called it a divine substance. Plato thought it was especially dear to the gods.
During the late Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages, salt roads into the heartland of the Germanic tribes was brought by caravans consisting of as many as 40,000 camels traversing 400 miles of the Sahara and bearing salt to inland markets. Sometimes salt was traded for slaves. Timbuktu was a noted salt and slave market.
Salt comes from two main sources. It comes from sea water and the sodium chloride mineral halite. In the United States and Canada extensive underground beds and deposits are found in Texas, Ohio, Kansas, New Mexico, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan.
Salt has played a prominent role in determining the power and location of the world’s great cities. Liverpool rose from just a small English port to become the prime exporting port for the salt dug in the great Cheshire salt mines and thus became the entrepot for much of the world’s salt in the 19th Century.
Salt created and destroyed empires. The salt mines of Poland led to a vast kingdom in the 16th Century. It was demolished when Germans brought in sea salt which much of the world considered superior to rock salt.
Cities, states and duchies along the salt roads exacted heavy duties and taxes for the salt passing through their territories. The gabelle was a hated French salt tax and was enacted in 1286. It was still in effect until 1790.
In American history salt has been a major factor in outcomes of wars. In the American Revolutionary War, Loyalists intercepted Patriot salt shipments in an attempt to interfere with their ability to preserve food. During the War of 1812, salt brine was used to pay American soldiers because the federal government was too poor to pay them with money.
Before Lewis and Clark set out for the 8,000-mile Louisiana Territory in 1804, president Jefferson, in his address to Congress, mentioned a mountain of salt, 180 miles long and 45 feet wide, that was supposed to lie near the Missouri River, the value of which was inconceivable and was the reason given for their expedition.
Today, salt is almost universally accessible, relatively cheap, and often iodized. Of course, many dishes taste better with salt added. Imagine a tender beef roast without salt? Think of pretzels without salt! Or, lasagna without salt. Or, even watermelon with a dash of salt adding flavor. Or a tomato bisque soup without!
The list of uses include keeping vegetables bright when boiled. Making ice cream freeze. Removing rust. Removing spots on clothing. Making candles dripless. And best of all, keeping cut flowers fresh. More than 100 uses for salt are well known. The modern salt industry estimates that there are 14,000 uses for salt, including fertilizing agricultural fields and making soap.