Consumption and Real Estate
Why did salt used to be so expensive?
Question : Why did salt used to be so expensive?
I was reading Wikipedia…
“However, salt was difficult to obtain, and so it was a highly valued trade item. Until the 1900s, salt was one of the prime movers of national economies and wars. Salt was taxed from as far back as the 20th century BC in China.”
Why was salt so hard to find? Isn’t the ocean full of salt? Isn’t that where sea salt comes from? I just don’t get why it was so valuable if the world is full of it.
national movers
Best answer:
Answer by Dav
Because salt was only available when it could be transported to them. Nowadays we have good and cheap transportation for goods.
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#3 written by Queen of Cards 1 year ago
2 things to keep in mind:
1] If you didn’t live near the ocean you had to pay a trader who carried it to you on a wagon. The further inland you lived the more the trader would charge you.
2] There was a much higher demand for salt before there was refrigeration. Salt was pretty much the only way to preserve food for thousands of years.
I highly recommend the book “Salt: A World History” by Mark Kurlansky. It’s got everything you’d ever want to know about the subject and is surprisingly entertaining.
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well we been convinced it is vital to life however doctors wiuld tell us we know ingest too much
I suppose salt was precious because it was difficult to mine the evaporation method gave only a little production.
And if it has become a comodity then a larger price can be gleaned for it as late as the 1930 Gahndi led a revolt against the English salt tax.