Salt: A World History
Mark Kurlansky
Paperback Edition, 2015
>“There is every reason to believe that the primitive mind equated the idea of salt, not only with that of semen, but also with the essential constituent of urine.”
‘Salt’ is an impressively entertaining history book, mixing biographies, travelogues, and recipes with the story of salt and salt-making through the ages and around the world. From ancient Egypt, where your status dictated the type of salt used in mummifying your body to modern-day Sichuan, where natural gas has fueled salt boilers since 100 AD, Mark Kurlansky unfolds the tale of mankind’s quest for salt. More importantly for /tg/, it’s a great resource for GMs and worldbuilders looking to go beyond the gold/spice/slave economy you see in most fantasy polities.
What makes ‘Salt’ so useful? Kurlansky goes into great and intimate detail on the history and culture surrounding salt when it was scarce. While nowadays doctors urge us to eat less salt, for almost the entirety of human history salt was a scarce necessity, one imbued with religious and political significance on top of its economic importance. Unlike flashier and more oft-considered commodities like pepper, gold, or coal, salt is essential to human life. Salt became an object of worship and devotion, was the primary source of government revenue for many of the great empires, and was as vital to pre-Industrial civilizations as oil is to ours.
>”Soaked frog” was a specialty of Zigong salt merchants. A few pieces of wood would be floated in a large jar of brine. Live frogs would be put in the jar, and they would desperately perch on the pieces of wood. The jar and the frogs would be dead and dried on the wood but preserved because they had dipped in the salt. They would then be steamed.
>>46724041
You won’t just make a fantasy kingdom surrounded by mountains yet self-sufficient in water and farmland anymore. After all, they need a source of salt to make ham and pickle vegetables, purify silver ore and raise revenue, and maintain their independence from other kingdoms that might have excess salt to trade. Without a salt source under their control, this hypothetical kingdom would be hostage to foreign powers for an element as essential as water. As Kurlansky explains, the Aztec control of salt sources in Mesoamerica was the secret to their domination of surrounding nations, and French domination of the fine sea salt market was a serious concern for England’s rulers throughout the Middle Ages and Enlightenment.
The quest for salt begins, surprisingly, with the Chinese. Ancient salt wells in Sichuan brought up buckets of natural salt brine. Natural gas uncovered by mining fueled boilers and was piped through bamboo pipes across thousands of miles to the heart of ancient Chinese cities as fuel. The image of towering bamboo derricks even entered the language as “井,” meaning “well.” And it was in China that salt was first controlled by the government.
>In 1901, two men, Pattillo Higgins and Anthony Lucas, ignored the advice of geologists and started drilling a Texas salt dome called Spindletop... No longer were terms like ‘well’ and ‘drill rig’ to conjure up the image of salt. Spindletop had spawned the age of petroleum.
>>46724059
Whether the actual production of salt is controlled, as by Imperial China or the city-state of Parma, or salt is simply taxed and regulated, as with Rome or France, or even if salt’s supply is controlled by economic means, as with Venice and Genoa, the demand for salt has meant that governments throughout history have used it as a source of revenue. The onerous French Gabelle, which taxed the salt trade heavily and unequally and required vast amounts of it to be purchased by French citizens regardless of need, is the longest-lived and perhaps most tragic of salt revenue systems, lasting from 1259 to 1946. Dozens of rebellions can be laid at its feet, and a constant battle was fought between gabelous officers, charged with its enforcement, and salt smugglers throughout the history and territory of France.
>In most cultures only men were allowed to gather salt, but the Navajo allowed women also. The Zuni, according to legend, originally allowed both, but their frivolity on the mission offended the salt goddess and the salt supply started to vanish. So they changed the custom to men only.
This same power has meant that salt has garnered tremendous religious significance as well; Native American civilizations and tribes invariably had goddesses of salt, and the gathering of salt was as much a spiritual pilgrimage as it was an economic activity. But surprisingly few RPG pantheons feature a goddess of salt; even Procan of Greyhawk is basically a god of oceans despite managing salt as a part of his portfolio. The closest salt comes to religion in most traditional games is as a tool for purification and dispelling evil, yet few seem to know that in ancient Greece and Rome holy water was made by blessing a mixture of salt and water. How shallow most settings are can be seen in how little salt, and other necessary but mundane goods like tin, lead, glass, etc. are ignored in favor of magical rocks or complex justifications of a slave economy.
>>46724086
>In the Middle Ages, salt already had a wide variety of industrial applications besides preserving food. It was used to cure leather, to clean chimneys, for soldering pipes, to glaze pottery, and as a medicine for a wide variety of complaints from toothaches to upset stomachs, to “heaviness of mind.”
But ‘Salt’ also delves deeply into the cultural history of salt, from the ancient Egyptians to modern-day Brittany revivalists. Egyptians knew of several types of salt, but mummies rich and poor were preserved with natron, an impure salt believed to be have medicinal properties. While Europeans desired pure white salt, painstakingly purified from sea water, Africa has always had a taste for salts containing mineral impurities for added flavor in cooking, and Asia has a history of developing complex and salty sauces made from pickled fish and vegetables. The unique cultural artifacts of humanity’s dependence on salt, like the salt potatoes of Syracuse or the tuna run fishing ceremonies of the Mediterranean are yet more fuel for the creative fire.
Imagine the city of Waterdeep, from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Where does Waterdeep get its salt? If you look at the climate, it seems too cold for evaporation ponds. Northern European nations like Sweden and Finland would establish elaborate pumping networks to bring up cold, salt-dense water from the deep ocean and consume vast amounts of fuel to boil it into salt; could Waterdeep magically transport and heat enough salt for a major trade city? Or would Waterdeep function more like Venice, paying merchants subsidies for bringing salt to their city and distributing it from there at higher prices? What sort of cultural artifacts would the City of Splendors create around salt; perhaps salted sahuagin made in Skullport for export to kua-toas, or sprinkling salt over an entrance to Undermountain before delving into it?
>>46724041
I picked this book up when I was a little kid because I thought it would help with a science fair project on salt crystals.
I found it staggeringly interesting, given how boring the title sounded.
>>46724131
‘Salt’ will open a universe of ideas to worldbuilding GMs, and inspire you to seek alternative sources of wealth and power as a player. It’s a great inspiration and resource for anyone who wants to truly breathe life into their settings and need something more for their worldbuilding than just another monster-haunted gold mine or yet more descriptions of silk clothing. From cities built of salt to nations that died without it, ‘Salt’ tells a story that spans from the dawn of human history to the present day that is well worth learning.Now I’m searching for books on other ancient and medieval commodities often ignored by RPG setting books, like tin and copper and wine. There’s so much more that can really help you bring settings to life, if only you can find it. Don’t just rely on Wikipedia or copying what Greenwood has written down. Reach out and seek for knowledge!
>>46724143
The cover just drew me in. The 2015 paperback edition has a great color inset that had images of all these salt products, and I decided I had to pick it up for my worldbuilding. The recipes in it were good too; I made some Choucrute and it turned out deliciously, though I cheated a bit and turned it into pickles halfway through because of the smell.
>>46724224
I try to write reviews on the basis of how useful to /tg/ they are though. Mainly because I usually pick up books that are in /tg/'s interest or are somehow related to RPGs. This is only the third non-fiction book I've reviewed so far.
>Other book reviews
https://warosu.org/tg/?task=search2&ghost=yes&search_text=&search_subject=%2Ftg%2F+Book+Review&search_username=&search_tripcode=&search_email=&search_filename=&search_datefrom=&search_dateto=&search_op=op&search_del=dontcare&search_int=dontcare&search_ord=new&search_capcode=all&search_res=post
http://desustorage.org/tg/thread/45446081/#45446081
>>46724041
You might like Periodic Tales. It spreads its history out across the Periodic Table but goes a bit into the history of each element it discusses, which is most of them. A good starting point, if nothing else.
>>46724586
Sounds like it'd be interesting.
>>46724041
>>46725176
;rn2World build you casual.
>>46725176
And here, we have the representation on how salt is used in our Internet age.
Read closer, you salty motherfucker, and see that the thread is related to worldbuilding, which is /tg/ as fuck. When was the last time a setting paid extra attention to mundane stuff that turned out to be important, like salt?
>>46724146
There's a book about the history and development of clocks I have lying around that I would definitely recommend...
if you're willing to wait for me to find it so I can remember the title :/
>>46725377
Oh, please do, that sounds pretty cool.
Related to the topic at hand of the history of everyday mundane objects that we don't think about, but are very important to modern life, has anyone else seen "how we got to now?" it's a documentary miniseries pbs did a short time ago. it's available on netflix. they provide a good overview of things like the invention of a standardized time system, air conditioning, etc. I'd recommend it.
>>46725342
What is even considered "mundane?" Can you ever be too mundane? I remember I once spent a month researching tubers just so I could come up with a good explanation for how people living in an arctic tundra could raise edible roots and live in caves like stone age Neanderthals.
>>46726180
Mundane to the characters in-setting, I guess? Taking example of your tuber research, are the tubers considered mundane or extraordinary?
>>46724041
I wish we could just get a separate worldbuilding board to cut down on the "everything is tg now because anything can fit into someone's campaign" posts.
It's a fucking book review, no matter how smug you want to be about how people don't think enough about salt in random fantasy settings.
>>46726354
I dunno, man, that thread about the evil party running a salt mine is kind of a /tg/ classic. the one where they eventually end up selling people's fossilized nightmares to hags as a drug and have to maintain their elaborate spice trade lines was pretty fun to read about.
>>46724041
>>46724131
>>46724146
There is an excellent recent book on the history of red dye as a commodity - very entertaining and also a hugely influential trade good. If you liked salt, you will probably really find it interesting.
It is called "A Perfect Red" I think. There is also a solid recent book called "Gunpowder" which would provide great info for worldbuilding on changes to society that come from gunpowder.
>>46726484
>Gunpowder
is it "Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, And Pyrotechnics: The History Of The Explosive That Changed The World" or a different one?
>>46726509
Called "Gunpowder: A history of the explosive that changed the world".
>>46726373
I don't care, there's a worldbuilding thread, he could have posted it there to contribute to the people who are interested, instead of attentionwhoring in a separate thread.
>>46726484
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126293.A_Perfect_Red
>>46726354
We need to purge first quest threads and generals. Make Tg great again.
>>46726663
I don't like them either, but they're the most popular things on the board.
maybe a filter to toggle them on/off, like on the archive. that'd be nice.
>>46726289
Totally mundane, and boring and bland.
>>46726532
Threads are on a topic-by-topic basis. This argument is basically saying
>All D&D threads should go to the D&D General
>All Warhammer 40k discussion should go to one of the Warhammer 40k generals
Generals are what's killing the board culture. A separate thread is appropriate.
>>46726373
Is there a screencap of this?
>>46726484
Dyes are interesting; they're both a luxury and a generic commodity, depending on the pigment and its source. Like the purple dye that the Romans considered so rare and distinctive it should be reserved for their emperors. That didn't mean there weren't purple dyes before it or without it, just that they were made from lower-quality materials.
No one cares. Salt is boring.
There's a reason that all the political manoeuvring and backstabbing in Dune is about a substance that gives you psychic powers and allows interstellar travel. If it was just salt, that book would be a shit ton more boring.
If you're spending time world-building around salt, you're wasting time on something no one will ever care about. You are making your setting more boring, not more interesting.
>>46727309
Stay salty faggot.
>>46727309
Sorry anon. I'm afraid you're quite wrong.
Salt is not boring. Ask a legionarry for one.
>>46725725
OK, so I actually totally misremembered. It's called longitude by dava sobel, and it's about the invention of spring clocks to aid with navigation at sea, which was a huge problem back in 18th century, but that's still pretty neat
>>46727309
I used to think that; then I read this book.
