13/03/2020
Salt or gold, in the middle ages it was treated the same.
Food preservation was only possible with salt, hence it was a highly priced commodity without substitute of any kind. Reason why the famous kingdom of Timbuktu in Mali was once a mighty power in Africa, enabled them to build one of the oldest ever universities of it’s time being home for 25000 students (when Timbuktu had a population of 100000 people).
Getting back to Europe, Croatia, Sea salt pans of Dubrovnik and Nin are the oldest in Europe, dating way back to 14 and 15 century respectively. Salt was their fuel for the economy, building fleets of sail ships while using it as a leverage of power when needed.
Republic of Dubrovnik like kingdom of Timbuktu was built on trade as well, it was named as the birthplace of modern democracy that banned the slavery all the way back in 15 century.
Freedom to be, to create and to travel without borders, meant that salt was loaded in satchels to preserve its nutrients when travelling long distances. It was carried by donkeys and then by ships that sailed and traded with distanced India and China.
In our humble view spicing our daily life is what is the most important thing, while taking everything with the grain of salt as our elders taught us to do :).
