Page 357 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1658 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

salt mining in Szechwan was unmatched elsewhere. pened; but there is reason to believe that more and
Indeed it should be recognized as the largest industrial cheaper salt began to flow across the Baltic in the four-
complex on earth before steam engines permitted the rise teenth century since that was when European fishermen
of Manchester and Birmingham in England after 1780. began to sail further and further into the Atlantic, pre-
Indian and European governments imitated the Chi- serving their catch by covering the fish with salt and stor-
nese in trying to tax salt, but wherever numerous, small- ing them in barrels for days or weeks until they returned
scale salt evaporation sites existed along the seacoast, home and took their catch ashore.Very likely the Polish
government monopolies were hard to enforce, and salt government, unlike their Hapsburg neighbor, was too
taxes remained both unpopular and marginal. But in weak to monopolize mined salt, so market prices pre-
Central Europe, in and around Salzburg, Austria, under- vailed. If so, that meant lower prices, since mining Polish
ground salt beds existed near the surface, and the Haps- salt was comparatively simple, quantities were easy to
burg monarchy (1273–1918) grew great very largely on increase, and shipping down the Vistula was inexpensive.
the strength of income from taxes on salt, produced, as All we know for sure is that after about the mid-
in China, from underground.The French monarchy tried fourteenth century, salt, cheap enough for fishermen to
to do likewise, but since the French coastline abounded buy and use in large quantities, became available along
in privately managed salt pans, efforts to impose monop- the Baltic, North Sea, and Atlantic coasts as never before.
oly prices met with indifferent success since even in Some came from Poland, some from old-fashioned
inland provinces, where the salt tax was most vigorously Mediterranean salt pans, which could expand production
enforced, smuggling untaxed salt could not be prevented. almost as easily as the Polish miners by building more
Everywhere the salt tax remained unpopular, and when evaporation ponds. Dutch (and other) ships, carrying salt
the French revolution broke out in 1789 the National to and fro, kept market prices low for them both.
Assembly abolished the tax.
Further east, near Cracow in Poland, beds of unusually Historical Implications
pure underground salt also existed, and the soil on top This was important for world history, and goes far to
of it was so dry that salt could be mined by using picks explain why European instead of Japanese seamen dis-
and shovels, leaving extensive underground caverns covered America. For, even though fishermen do not usu-
behind. Today these caverns run for miles a few yards ally tell where fishing is best, there is good reason to
beneath the surface. Salt merchants from Venice discov- believe that exploration of the breadth of the Atlantic car-
ered (or enlarged and reorganized?) these mines in the ried European fishermen to the Grand Banks and the
fourteenth century.The salt trade had been important for shores of Newfoundland some decades before Columbus
Venetians from the time of the city’s foundation in the made his famous voyage. And it is certain that their voy-
sixth century, since the climate along the adjacent coast aging, together with what the Portuguese did to explore
of the Adriatic was especially dry and well suited to the the coast of Africa, accumulated knowledge of winds and
Mediterranean style of salt-making by evaporation.Vene- currents and other skills needed for the trans-oceanic voy-
tians (in competition with other Mediterranean seafarers) aging that European navigators achieved so spectacularly
had supplied salt to northern Europe for centuries; and between 1492 and 1522.
the expansion of salt production in Poland did not dis- Nothing similar happened in the North Pacific where
rupt Mediterranean salt-making and export to the north. Japanese fishermen had boats just as good as what Euro-
All the same it is likely, though not sure, that Polish salt peans had, but lacked large amounts of cheap salt, so
mines lowered prices and increased the quantity of salt stayed close to shore where they could get their catch to
available along the Baltic coast and in Holland. Only market within a day or two. Once out of water, fish rot
careful study of salt prices could tell for sure what hap- quickly, so catching them across an ocean from where