Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky features a comprehensive and lavishly detailed explication of the utilization and significance of salt in humanity, thus, how the desire for salt promoted social, technological, and economic advancements from ancient empires to the modern western superpowers. This book has analyzed history and economics by centralizing the topic around the usage of salt for categorized by different countries. The primary theme of this book is that desire promotes refinement and here are the pieces of evidence:
| Page 27 “From the piping at Sichuan brine works, Chinese throughout the country learned to build irrigation and plumbing systems. Large bamboo water mains were installed in Hangzhou in 1089.” In this example, the method used by the Chinese to build the brine wells motivated the development of the complex bamboo irrigation system in Hangzhou. This shows the technological advancements of the complex irrigation system motivated by the desire for salt. Page 85. “The Venetian government never owned salt but simply took a profit from regulating its trade. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, a period when Venice was a leading port for grain and spices.” “As a result, Venice became a salt supplier to more and more countries” In the second example, the Venetian government, because of the desire for salt, regulated salt prices so merchants are willing to import salt from other countries to Venice. Venice, as a result, gained economic power. Page 194. “But with the discovery of rock salt, the growing salt industry gained economic importance to persuade the government to construct canals” “The salt industry, coal industry and the port of Liverpool fed off to each other and together grew prosperous.” In the last example, Cheshire began industrialization because of desire for salt; they have drastically increased salt production by establishing salt industries along with coal industries for fuel, and along with the port for trade, Cheshire, as a result, became prosperous economically, From this evidence, we can see that the immense desire for salt motivated technological and economic advancements for different countries. Salt: A World History is a phenomenal book and you should totally read it. Firstly, it illustrates and explains history by centralizing the topic around salt, which will improve our knowledge about this significant topic in economics and history. Secondly, this also introduces some recipes of food from different cultures which is a very creative aspect of this book, and these two vital components made this book truly a masterpiece. I would rate this book a 5/5. One thing I learned from this unit is the significance and importance of reading because I felt like I have assimilated so much knowledge about the connection between history and salt.
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