Salt, by Mark Kurlansky

This is one interesting book, based on the history of salt.  It is amazing how salt ruled the world, created taxes, and taxes created smuggling.  In an attempt to keep the cost of English salt high, the Indian saltworks had to be taxed by the British, and so on.

If you read the reviews , this is a great story, that weaves between China, France, Spain, to the Dead Sea, over to the new world, and on.  I was surprised at how salt became chemicals and ended up in gun powder for example.  Many of us who do not think chemistry on a daily basis, do not give a thought to the fact that salt deposits are often close to oil deposits.  We do not think about the fact that Salsomaggiore, Italy , where my father was born was on top of a major salt deposit, and that is the reason for the name...major salt.  On top of the salt mine there was a wheel that was worked by the humans who were chained by the neck , to the wheel. Men  walked on the wheel to make it move.  I wondered did my ancestors walk that wheel?  Did your ancestors work in the salt mines in the many countries discussed in this book as we travel the commerce of the world through this commodity.  What an interesting approach to trade, and how government intervention interferes with the free market.

 Salt fortunes were made and swallowed up by war, by governments, by uprisings, and as the discoveries of the different kinds of salt progressed, chemical reactions, and industry grew with new products, new means of preserving food etc.  It is a fun book to read, always keeping you interested in what is coming next.