History and Facts 

Today we know salt as something inexpensive and readily available, a seasoning that everyone has at their tables and uses on daily basis. It is often taken for granted by most people.

The salt, however, is far more than that white granular food seasoning found in a salt shakers on virtually every dining table around the world. It is an essential element in the diet of all 5.9 billion humans living on earth, as well as of animals, and even of many plants. It is probably the most effective, most widely used and the oldest of all food preservatives. It was even used by Egyptians to preserve mummies.  

While we are all familiar with the many uses of salt in cooking, we may not be aware that salt is used in more than 14,000 commercial applications. From manufacturing pulp and paper to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, from producing soaps and detergents to making our roads safe in winter, salt plays an essential role in our daily lives.

And definitely the most important role of salt is to keep us alive.

Our sweat, tears, and blood taste of salt. All the chemical reactions inside our bodies require sodium, which together with chloride make up salt. The fact is that we can't survive without sodium, but it took us about five million years before we began to consume sodium as salt. How fatal lack of sodium to humans can be we learn from the history, when thousands of Napoleon's troops died during their retreat from Moscow. Their death was caused by inadequate wound healing and lowered resistance to disease and was a result of a lack of salt.

Prehistoric man obtained salt from the meat of hunted animals. When man developed agriculture, the vegetable and cereal diet was supplemented with salt. And this was the time when the quest for salt became a primary motivation in history. Salt was in a general use long time before historians began to record it.

In 2,700 B.C. in China the Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu was published, which is probably the oldest known publication on pharmacology. A major portion of it was devoted to a debate about more than 40 kinds of salt, including descriptions of two methods of extracting salt and putting it in usable form that are amazingly similar to processes used today. 

By 2000 BC, people knew that adding salt to food stopped it from turning bad. Since then salt was used to preserve meat, fish and vegetables and buying and selling of salt became one of the most important trading activities in the world. Humans began to understand salt’s importance and therefore started using its power. Salt served as money at various times and in many places.

Greek slave traders often bartered salt for slaves and gave rise to the expression that someone was "not worth his salt." Roman legionnaires were paid "salarium argentum” in salt, which is the origin of the English word "salary."

In 1259 French levied a salt tax called "gabelle", in order to finance their conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. Outrage over the gabelle fueled the French Revolution. Though after the fall of Louis XIV, the revolutionaries eliminated the tax, the gabelle was reestablished by the Republic of France in the early 19th Century and lasted till 1946.

An engineering marvel, The Erie Canal, that connected the Great Lakes to New York's Hudson River built in 1825, was called "the ditch that salt built." Half the cost of construction was paid from the salt tax revenues.

The British monarchy supported itself with high salt taxes, which lead  to an active black market trading for this white crystal. In 1785, the earl of Dundonald wrote that every year in England, over 10 thousand people were arrested for salt smuggling.

In the mid-1800s, salt's value as an important raw material for the chemical industry was established when the Solvay process in Belgium converted salt to synthetic soda ash. Today, salt is the largest mineral feedstock consumed by the world chemical industry. 

Salt has long held an important place in religion and culture of many nations. There are over 30 references to salt in the Bible. For example in the Old Testament, Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt. Covenants in both, the Old and New Testaments were often sealed with salt: the origin of the word "salvation."

Also other early religions often consecrated salt in their religious rituals. Jewish Temple offerings included salt; an till this day on the Sabbath, Jews still dip their bread in salt as a remembrance of those sacrifices. In Buddhist tradition, salt repels evil spirits. That's why it's customary to throw salt over your shoulder before entering your house after a funeral: it scares off any evil spirits that may be clinging to your back.

Shinto religion in Japan, also uses salt to purify an area. Sumo wrestlers entering the ring for a match throw a handful of salt into the center to drive off evil spirits.