brianshapiro
King
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2003
- Messages
- 775
The thread is to ask whether there should be a salt resource in the game, it would have some effect on a city's ability to store food.
From wiki ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt ) :
Salt's ability to preserve food was a foundation of civilization. It eliminated the dependence on the seasonal availability of food and it allowed travel over long distances. However, salt was difficult to obtain, and so it was a highly valued trade item, which followed the pull of economics along salt roads such as the via Salaria in Italy, some of which had been established in the Bronze age.
...
Already in the early years of the Roman Republic, with the growth of the city of Rome, roads were built to make transportation of salt to the capital city easier. An example was the Via Salaria (originally a Sabine trail), leading from Rome to the Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic Sea, having a higher salinity due to its shallow depth, had more productive solar ponds compared with those of the Tyrrhenian Sea, much closer to Rome.
During the late Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages salt was a precious commodity carried along the salt roads into the heartland of the Germanic tribes. Caravans consisting of as many as forty thousand camels traversed four hundred miles of the Sahara bearing salt to inland markets in the Sahel, sometimes trading salt for slaves: Timbuktu was a huge salt and slave market.
...
Cities and wars
Salt has played a prominent role in determining the power and location of the world's great cities. Liverpool rose from just a small English port to become the prime exporting port for the salt dug in the great Cheshire salt mines and thus became the entrepôt for much of the world's salt in the 1800s [1].
Salt created and destroyed empires. The salt mines of Poland led to a vast kingdom in the 1500s, only to be destroyed when Germans brought in sea salt (to most of the world, considered superior to rock salt). Venice fought and won a war with Genoa over salt. However, Genovites Christopher Columbus and Giovanni Caboto would later destroy the Mediterranean trade by introducing the New World to the market[1] .
Cities, states and duchies along the salt roads exacted heavy duties and taxes for the salt passing through their territories. This practice even caused the formation of cities, such as the city of Munich in 1158, when the then Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Lion, decided that the bishops of Freising no longer needed their salt revenue [1].
The gabelle—a hated French salt tax—was enacted in 1286 and maintained until 1790. Because of the gabelles, common salt was of such a high value that it caused mass population shifts and exodus, attracted invaders and caused wars. [1]
During many wars in American history, salt has been a major factor in the outcome. In the Revolutionary War, the British used Tories to intercept the rebels' salt supply and destroy their ability to preserve food.[1] During the War of 1812, salt brine was used to pay soldiers in the field, as the government was too poor to pay them with money.[citation needed] Before Lewis and Clark set out for the Louisiana Territory, President Jefferson spoke in his address to Congress about a mountain of salt supposed to lie near the Missouri River, which would have been of immense value. (However, by 1810, new discoveries along the Kanawha and Sandy Rivers had greatly reduced the value of salt.)[citation needed]
During India's independence movement, Mohandas Gandhi organized the Salt Satyagraha protest to demonstrate against the British salt tax.[1]
From wiki ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt ) :
Salt's ability to preserve food was a foundation of civilization. It eliminated the dependence on the seasonal availability of food and it allowed travel over long distances. However, salt was difficult to obtain, and so it was a highly valued trade item, which followed the pull of economics along salt roads such as the via Salaria in Italy, some of which had been established in the Bronze age.
...
Already in the early years of the Roman Republic, with the growth of the city of Rome, roads were built to make transportation of salt to the capital city easier. An example was the Via Salaria (originally a Sabine trail), leading from Rome to the Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic Sea, having a higher salinity due to its shallow depth, had more productive solar ponds compared with those of the Tyrrhenian Sea, much closer to Rome.
During the late Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages salt was a precious commodity carried along the salt roads into the heartland of the Germanic tribes. Caravans consisting of as many as forty thousand camels traversed four hundred miles of the Sahara bearing salt to inland markets in the Sahel, sometimes trading salt for slaves: Timbuktu was a huge salt and slave market.
...
Cities and wars
Salt has played a prominent role in determining the power and location of the world's great cities. Liverpool rose from just a small English port to become the prime exporting port for the salt dug in the great Cheshire salt mines and thus became the entrepôt for much of the world's salt in the 1800s [1].
Salt created and destroyed empires. The salt mines of Poland led to a vast kingdom in the 1500s, only to be destroyed when Germans brought in sea salt (to most of the world, considered superior to rock salt). Venice fought and won a war with Genoa over salt. However, Genovites Christopher Columbus and Giovanni Caboto would later destroy the Mediterranean trade by introducing the New World to the market[1] .
Cities, states and duchies along the salt roads exacted heavy duties and taxes for the salt passing through their territories. This practice even caused the formation of cities, such as the city of Munich in 1158, when the then Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Lion, decided that the bishops of Freising no longer needed their salt revenue [1].
The gabelle—a hated French salt tax—was enacted in 1286 and maintained until 1790. Because of the gabelles, common salt was of such a high value that it caused mass population shifts and exodus, attracted invaders and caused wars. [1]
During many wars in American history, salt has been a major factor in the outcome. In the Revolutionary War, the British used Tories to intercept the rebels' salt supply and destroy their ability to preserve food.[1] During the War of 1812, salt brine was used to pay soldiers in the field, as the government was too poor to pay them with money.[citation needed] Before Lewis and Clark set out for the Louisiana Territory, President Jefferson spoke in his address to Congress about a mountain of salt supposed to lie near the Missouri River, which would have been of immense value. (However, by 1810, new discoveries along the Kanawha and Sandy Rivers had greatly reduced the value of salt.)[citation needed]
During India's independence movement, Mohandas Gandhi organized the Salt Satyagraha protest to demonstrate against the British salt tax.[1]
