It frankly adds context to (and makes sense of) a lot of the Rudyard Kipling I read as a sixth grader which, at the time, just made me scratch my head in bewilderment.
That's very sad. I will have to look at this again when I eventually write about sugar - for centuries it has used slave labour, even before the rise of the New World plantations. Slaves were being used in the Mediterranean and then on the Atlantic coast to produce sugar long, long before 1492. In many ways it's from a similar cause: it's such brutal work.
I had no idea salt trade can be this exciting. Can't wait for part III.
Speaking of Cambridge, what do you think about the Economies Past project claims that "the shift from the primary to the secondary sector was from 1600-1700, not 1750-1850 as 100 years of scholarship has assumed. In fact, the share of the male labour force in the secondary sector (excluding mining) was flat during the Industrial Revolution.
A second major finding is that the tertiary sector was the most dynamic sector of employment during the Industrial Revolution period."
Yes, I've cited the Cambridge recent a lot over the years. The stuff about the early transition to industry is core to one of the main theses in the book I'm writing.
There is a relevant line in the movie The Horse Soldiers, in which Colonel Marlowe, commanding a small brigade of Union Cavalry raiding deep into Confederate Louisiana, is giving orders for the day over his cup of coffee. His scouts describe the area around their camp that includes “a couple of salt mills”. John Wayne, portraying Colonel Marlowe says, “ Those salt mills will need burning. Salt’s as valuable as ammunition!”
Thanks very much! Even more complexity to the Hansa than I let on perhaps, but I wanted to give a general sense of how it worked without delving too much into the detail (both for my own sake, and to prevent the piece becoming too long!)
Awesome write up. By a sheer stroke of coincidence, I read this while stuck in traffic on the way out of Bombay - right next to the semi abandoned St Anton Salt Works.
- Thanks to "sophia (tokyo)" on X for pointing out a mistake in my calculations of relative fuel efficiency. Rather than taking seven times as much fuel to obtain salt from 3.5% seawater compared to a 25% brine concentration, it actually takes nine times as much. And rather than taking ten times as much fuel in the Baltic compared to ordinary coastlines, it actually takes twelve times as much. Completely by accident, my statement of three to seven times for the coast of Bengal vs other seawater happened to still be correct.
Fascinating. This is great.
It frankly adds context to (and makes sense of) a lot of the Rudyard Kipling I read as a sixth grader which, at the time, just made me scratch my head in bewilderment.
Tragically, debt bondage for brutal work continues to this day in India, this time for sugar instead of salt:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/world/europe/india-sugar-cane-fields-child-labor-hysterectomies.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
That's very sad. I will have to look at this again when I eventually write about sugar - for centuries it has used slave labour, even before the rise of the New World plantations. Slaves were being used in the Mediterranean and then on the Atlantic coast to produce sugar long, long before 1492. In many ways it's from a similar cause: it's such brutal work.
I'm looking forward to it! It'll be grim, of course...
I had no idea salt trade can be this exciting. Can't wait for part III.
Speaking of Cambridge, what do you think about the Economies Past project claims that "the shift from the primary to the secondary sector was from 1600-1700, not 1750-1850 as 100 years of scholarship has assumed. In fact, the share of the male labour force in the secondary sector (excluding mining) was flat during the Industrial Revolution.
A second major finding is that the tertiary sector was the most dynamic sector of employment during the Industrial Revolution period."
Yes, I've cited the Cambridge recent a lot over the years. The stuff about the early transition to industry is core to one of the main theses in the book I'm writing.
There is a relevant line in the movie The Horse Soldiers, in which Colonel Marlowe, commanding a small brigade of Union Cavalry raiding deep into Confederate Louisiana, is giving orders for the day over his cup of coffee. His scouts describe the area around their camp that includes “a couple of salt mills”. John Wayne, portraying Colonel Marlowe says, “ Those salt mills will need burning. Salt’s as valuable as ammunition!”
Hi Anton - Excellent trans national analysis and correlations - I had no idea the Baltic was not so saline or that Sleaching was so widely used.
Will you also be covering the impact of the English wars of C13/15/16 with French and Spain and their influence on English and Scottish Salt making?
Cheers
Steve
Thanks Steve, I will indeed! That was what was supposed to be in Part II, but it'll now be the focus of Part III - the Dutch, English, and Scots.
Fascinating story very well told.
Bravo! Well done. I had heard of the Hanseatic League but didn't really know what they were.
And the Bengal story, dear god.
Thanks very much! Even more complexity to the Hansa than I let on perhaps, but I wanted to give a general sense of how it worked without delving too much into the detail (both for my own sake, and to prevent the piece becoming too long!)
Awesome write up. By a sheer stroke of coincidence, I read this while stuck in traffic on the way out of Bombay - right next to the semi abandoned St Anton Salt Works.
Thanks - and that really is quite the coincidence!
Eye-opening, great work. Looking forward to part 3
Thanks very much. I need to get to finishing it up!
Great article on thr salt trade. In the Caribbean, Turks and Caicos was a huge salt producer. Loads for ships traveling north to Boston and New York.
Errata:
- Thanks to "sophia (tokyo)" on X for pointing out a mistake in my calculations of relative fuel efficiency. Rather than taking seven times as much fuel to obtain salt from 3.5% seawater compared to a 25% brine concentration, it actually takes nine times as much. And rather than taking ten times as much fuel in the Baltic compared to ordinary coastlines, it actually takes twelve times as much. Completely by accident, my statement of three to seven times for the coast of Bengal vs other seawater happened to still be correct.