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I'm guessing salt was only valuable for land-locked countries. Any country with a sea could just add some sea water to their cooking to get salt

by umvi 7y ago

wppick 7y ago
Salt was used to cure and preserve meat, and not just for flavoring
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Salt differs from other spices in a couple obvious ways: 1. It is a rock, not a biological product. 2. It is not used primarily for flavoring (though salt in specific has a strong flavor) -- it is a vital nutrient in its own right. With the exception of the flavoring, it has those things in common with iron, and iron and salt are the two commodities which were always widely traded, even in areas which engaged in almost no nonlocal trade.
rtkwe 7y ago
It was valuable everywhere because it was used for more than just flavoring and even if it was just for flavoring some things you would want to add salt to you don't want to also add water to. Salt water also comes with all the microbial content that would make long term storage and transport difficult.
jerf 7y ago
Transporting any significant quantity of sea water would have been a serious challenge to the ancient world, even just from the shore in to the middle of a port city. The easiest way to transport water is downhill, which, alas, doesn't work so well if you're starting from sea level. You can get water from the seashore just by evaporating it. It's simple, effective, and was done. But it's a lot more convenient to swing a pick and get a chunk of salt the size of your hand, rather than secure somewhere to evaporate off water, load it up, wait for it to evaporate, and collect it. It's the same reason we're stuck on fossil fuels... it's not that they're the only method we have for obtaining energy, it's just that nothing else can compete with putting in 1 unit of energy and getting back 80 or 90.
- int_19h 7y ago
  "For a society without trains or trucks, moving bulk materials of any kind over long distances is extraordinarily expensive. Moving grain overland, for instance, would cause its cost to double after 100 miles." (https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-part-i-the-ideal-city/ https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-pa...)
blaser-waffle 7y ago
Just because you're on the coast doesn't mean you have ideal salt producing capabilities. And mines in Austria or the Himalayas can produce lots of salt, too.

I'm guessing salt was only valuable for land-locked countries. Any country with a sea could just add some sea water to their cooking to get salt

by umvi 7y ago

I'm guessing salt was only valuable for land-locked countries. Any country with a sea could just add some sea water to their cooking to get salt

wppick 7y ago

Salt was used to cure and preserve meat, and not just for flavoring

thaumasiotes 7y ago
Salt differs from other spices in a couple obvious ways: 1. It is a rock, not a biological product. 2. It is not used primarily for flavoring (though salt in specific has a strong flavor) -- it is a vital nutrient in its own right. With the exception of the flavoring, it has those things in common with iron, and iron and salt are the two commodities which were always widely traded, even in areas which engaged in almost no nonlocal trade.

rtkwe 7y ago

It was valuable everywhere because it was used for more than just flavoring and even if it was just for flavoring some things you would want to add salt to you don't want to also add water to. Salt water also comes with all the microbial content that would make long term storage and transport difficult.

jerf 7y ago

Transporting any significant quantity of sea water would have been a serious challenge to the ancient world, even just from the shore in to the middle of a port city. The easiest way to transport water is downhill, which, alas, doesn't work so well if you're starting from sea level. You can get water from the seashore just by evaporating it. It's simple, effective, and was done. But it's a lot more convenient to swing a pick and get a chunk of salt the size of your hand, rather than secure somewhere to evaporate off water, load it up, wait for it to evaporate, and collect it. It's the same reason we're stuck on fossil fuels... it's not that they're the only method we have for obtaining energy, it's just that nothing else can compete with putting in 1 unit of energy and getting back 80 or 90.

int_19h 7y ago
"For a society without trains or trucks, moving bulk materials of any kind over long distances is extraordinarily expensive. Moving grain overland, for instance, would cause its cost to double after 100 miles." (https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-part-i-the-ideal-city/ https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-pa...)

blaser-waffle 7y ago

Just because you're on the coast doesn't mean you have ideal salt producing capabilities. And mines in Austria or the Himalayas can produce lots of salt, too.