4 ms·

Symptoms of salt deficiency: weakness, fatigue, headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, confusion, irritability. The Puebloans went on long risky journeys o

Symptoms of salt deficiency: weakness, fatigue, headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, confusion, irritability. The Puebloans went on long risky journeys over very difficult terrain to get to sources of it. That makes me guess that it was more of a necessity than a luxury. Was its scarcity such a health problem that it put a limit on the local population size?

aristus 3y ago
It was a perennial problem in earlier times. Because of its essential nature, many empires had salt taxes, including the British in India up to at least the 1930s.
kouru225 3y ago
I feel like this article underplays the importance of salt in the past. It was used as a currency. There isn’t a single culture we’ve found that doesn’t have a wealth of superstitions about the power of salt. Salt was also one of Spains biggest exports in the 1500s and had been so for many centuries.
- taeric 3y ago
  Not wrong, but often overplayed. There used to not be a fiat currency nearly as common as we see today, and a lot of trading was all in a barter economy.
  - pjc50 3y ago
    Fiat currency in Europe really dates from John Law: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/most-difficult-financial-matter-that-has-ever-presented-itself-paper-money-and-the-financing-of-warfare-under-louis-xiv/D7DA295698EBED10F26D9AF18AFA2037 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-re... Prior to that most European countries were on one or the other of gold or silver. This got derailed by the arrival of huge amounts from the New World.
    - taeric 3y ago
      I knew it was relatively new, but still impressive to see how new. My understanding was, even being on precious metals, most trading happened on the goods, not the metals. Mostly for predictable reasons on the supply chain not being nearly as efficient at moving goods away from producers. That not accurate?
      - pjc50 3y ago
        > most trading happened on the goods, not the metals I'm not sure what this means? There were definitely goods-goods exchanges on infrequent or first-contact routes, such as the early settlers of the Americas, but Rome had a fairly sophisticated set of concepts such as trade credit and instalments, and Europe recreated this in the Renaissance. Banco MPS dates from 1472, remember. So while you'd generally see "on the nail" money-goods exchanges, the set of individuals doing trading would be small and known to each other, making credit available. Code of Hammurabi, 4000 years old, makes some stipulations for how trade credit and agents should work, see rule 100 and onwards https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp
        taeric 3y ago
        I meant exchanging large amounts of goods for large amounts of coins. Such that even if you had metal coins, you were still more likely to do some trades on a barter in a way that feels like credit. "I'll deliver the X, and you'll load up the Y" kind of things. That completely off base?
bobthepanda 3y ago
Among other things, salt is a reliable way of preserving food in a pre-refrigeration world, so it can provide more stability to food supply. You can also only consume so much salt without dehydrating yourself.
AlotOfReading 3y ago
No, salt is readily available in parts of the southwest and they could have traded for it via the same long distance trade networks they used for other goods. The salt pilgrimages were intensely religious. The people of the southwest struggled with other nutritional deficits though. Lysine deficiencies, anemia, and scurvy were all present at fairly high rates throughout the population, especially in children.

aristus 3y ago

It was a perennial problem in earlier times. Because of its essential nature, many empires had salt taxes, including the British in India up to at least the 1930s.

kouru225 3y ago

I feel like this article underplays the importance of salt in the past. It was used as a currency. There isn’t a single culture we’ve found that doesn’t have a wealth of superstitions about the power of salt. Salt was also one of Spains biggest exports in the 1500s and had been so for many centuries.

taeric 3y ago
Not wrong, but often overplayed. There used to not be a fiat currency nearly as common as we see today, and a lot of trading was all in a barter economy.
- pjc50 3y ago
  Fiat currency in Europe really dates from John Law: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/most-difficult-financial-matter-that-has-ever-presented-itself-paper-money-and-the-financing-of-warfare-under-louis-xiv/D7DA295698EBED10F26D9AF18AFA2037 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-re... Prior to that most European countries were on one or the other of gold or silver. This got derailed by the arrival of huge amounts from the New World.
  - taeric 3y ago
    I knew it was relatively new, but still impressive to see how new. My understanding was, even being on precious metals, most trading happened on the goods, not the metals. Mostly for predictable reasons on the supply chain not being nearly as efficient at moving goods away from producers. That not accurate?
    - pjc50 3y ago
      > most trading happened on the goods, not the metals I'm not sure what this means? There were definitely goods-goods exchanges on infrequent or first-contact routes, such as the early settlers of the Americas, but Rome had a fairly sophisticated set of concepts such as trade credit and instalments, and Europe recreated this in the Renaissance. Banco MPS dates from 1472, remember. So while you'd generally see "on the nail" money-goods exchanges, the set of individuals doing trading would be small and known to each other, making credit available. Code of Hammurabi, 4000 years old, makes some stipulations for how trade credit and agents should work, see rule 100 and onwards https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp
      - taeric 3y ago
        I meant exchanging large amounts of goods for large amounts of coins. Such that even if you had metal coins, you were still more likely to do some trades on a barter in a way that feels like credit. "I'll deliver the X, and you'll load up the Y" kind of things. That completely off base?

bobthepanda 3y ago

Among other things, salt is a reliable way of preserving food in a pre-refrigeration world, so it can provide more stability to food supply. You can also only consume so much salt without dehydrating yourself.

AlotOfReading 3y ago

No, salt is readily available in parts of the southwest and they could have traded for it via the same long distance trade networks they used for other goods. The salt pilgrimages were intensely religious. The people of the southwest struggled with other nutritional deficits though. Lysine deficiencies, anemia, and scurvy were all present at fairly high rates throughout the population, especially in children.