On: Spices Have Made, and Unmade, Empires

[simonsarris]

Great examples.

Surprised it overlooks salt, especially as it mentions "Spices were among the first engines of globalization". The salt mines in the Salzburg ("Salt Fortress" or "Salt Castle"!!) were operating 7000 years ago and have been a considerable source of the areas riches, starting with the Celtic population trading to Greeks and Romans.

Salt played a role in both the American and the French revolutions:

https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2013/04/24/salt-works-established...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabelle#French_Revolution

[hammock → simonsarris]

I recently visited Wielikzca outside Krakow (look up photos, it's ridiculous). Poland's prosperity is largely owed to salt as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine

[hinkley → simonsarris]

And Indian independence.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March

[paxys → hinkley]

Salt was more of a symbol in that case, similar to Tea for American independence.

[ssvss → paxys]

British did buid a 1100km salt wall to effectively implement the salt tax in India.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/colonial-india-british...

[abawany → simonsarris]

So much so that there appears to be persistent belief that the word "salary" is derived from "sel" (salt): http://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2017/01/salt-and-salary.ht... .

[rockinghigh → abawany]

This blog post does not dispute the broad consensus that salarium comes from sal and that salarium was used to designate salary or emolument. It only tries to dispute the idea that people were paid in salt.