Salt and Sugar: Cultural History and Global Impact

Introduction: Two Everyday Substances with Extraordinary Histories

This paper examines cultural views on sugar and salt, exploring the historical roots of those views and how they have changed over time. Sugar and salt are two of the basic foods in most of the world's diets, and in modern times, these two very different substances provoke fear—many people limit them for health reasons. Yet sugar and salt are building blocks of diet and nutrition. Too much of either can ruin a healthy diet, but they also helped create and maintain entire cultures. Today, they are simply taken for granted as items easily found on grocery shelves.

Salt: From Ancient Currency to Modern Kitchens

Salt is one of the most basic minerals in the world, and yet one of the most historically significant. Today it is fashionable to keep "designer" salts in the kitchen—sea salts, French Fleur de Sel, Kosher salt, gray, pink, black, and white salts, all for different cooking purposes. However, salt has a far longer history. In the past, salt was life itself, and because of that, it played a monumental part in world history. Writer Kurlansky notes, "Without both water and salt, cells could not get nourishment and would die of dehydration" (Kurlansky 5). Another historian states, "The essential function of salt is to maintain the equilibrium of the liquids or serum in the body; it must remain constant" (Toussaint-Samat 457). Salt is necessary for survival, but it has been used for centuries as a flavoring and even as currency.

Humankind has known about salt and its benefits for millennia. The Chinese produced and traded sea salt as long ago as 800 B.C., and recorded preserving foods with it as early as 2000 B.C. Remains of salt from 2000 B.C. or before have been found in pharaohs' tombs in Egypt, and the Egyptians used it to embalm mummies and preserve them for the afterlife. Romans, especially the upper classes, used salt as a reward for the lower classes and sometimes paid their soldiers in it. In fact, the word "salary" comes from the word "salt," and so Roman soldiers were said to be "worth their salt" (Kurlansky 62). Salt works were common across Europe and Asia, as were salt mines, and the substance was so important that wars were fought over it.

By the ninth century, making salt had become something of an art, and the procedure would not advance drastically again until the twentieth century. Before the ninth century, salt makers created a pond and allowed the water to evaporate, leaving the salt behind. By the ninth century, a series of ponds and pumps were being used, pumping water from pond to pond as the salinity rose. This created a continual series of brine ponds and freshwater ponds, ensuring a steady supply of salt (Kurlansky 82). Many countries and cities created salt administrations—somewhat like today's treasuries or government oversight bodies—to maintain salt records, trade, and value. Venice had such an administration, and so did China. This indicates just how important salt was to these communities. China also used salt as money, and it was used in a wide variety of food items, from curing ham and pork to cheesemaking and curing olives. Many of these foods became staples of Mediterranean trade, alongside salt itself.

Kurlansky's history of salt demonstrates that virtually every civilization used salt in some way—for food, barter, preservation, and as an economic unit. His work also illustrates how important salt was in the development of so many foods we take for granted today, such as salted fish, cheese, olives, soy sauce, sauerkraut, pickles, butter, bacon, and many others. Salt helped trade grow because it allowed foods to be preserved and shipped in ways that were impossible with fresh produce. Areas such as the North Sea region, rich in fish, could ship their salted fish around the world and benefit from a growing economy. Salt not only provided sustenance—it could provide riches in the right hands.

By medieval times, salt was also a measure of wealth and social standing. In great halls, salt would be placed on the table in saltcellars for all to use. However, the further one sat from the saltcellar, the lower one's status in the community. This gave rise to the expressions "above the salt," for higher-ranking diners, and "below the salt," for those of lower rank. Salt continued to play an important role in trade, settlement, and the economy throughout the centuries. Long thought of as a sugar capital of the world, the Caribbean actually shipped more salt to North America than sugar. Kurlansky notes, "In the Caribbean, the leading cargo carried to North America—more tonnage than even sugar, molasses, or rum—was salt" (Kurlansky 211).

Salt was also an important factor in the Revolutionary War. There was a salt shortage during the conflict, and the Continental Congress urged patriots to produce salt and support the war effort. In France, oppressive salt laws and taxes were among the grievances that helped ignite the French Revolution in 1789 (Kurlansky 222–233). During the Civil War, the South was at a military and industrial disadvantage, but it also lacked the capacity to produce enough salt for its soldiers and civilian population (Kurlansky 257). Thus, salt has caused wars, helped win wars, and continues to play an important role in both conflict and peacetime trade. Some historians have likened its historical importance to that of oil in modern times. Jean-François Bergier, a salt historian, states: "It has been the reason behind commercial and political strategy, has enriched some and impoverished others. In short, for dozens of generations salt held a position similar to that of oil in our own time" (Toussaint-Samat 458).

Sugar: Origins, Trade, and the Rise of Plantation Economies

Today, salt is added to millions of food products, and many health studies indicate that too much salt can be harmful to the heart. It can cause hypertension (high blood pressure), and most people with high blood pressure are urged to reduce their salt intake. One food historian notes, "But in fact we eat more than we need, over 15 grams a day" (Toussaint-Samat 457). Salt is added to virtually every processed food and occurs naturally in many others, such as seafood. Many food manufacturers now market their products as "low-salt" or "no-salt" to appeal to health-conscious consumers. Other studies suggest that salt may not be the only culprit in heart disease, but it has received such negative publicity that most people try to avoid or reduce it. Nevertheless, salt remains necessary for life, and maintaining a proper balance in the body is simply good sense.

Beyond the kitchen, salt has a remarkable range of practical uses. Bread will not rise without a pinch of salt (or sugar), and a small amount of salt enhances the flavor of almost any food. But salt can also be used to make ice cream freeze in an old-style freezer, whip cream more quickly, seal cracks, remove spots from clothes, eliminate rust, clean bamboo furniture, keep cut flowers fresh, treat ailments from sore throats to indigestion, extinguish grease fires, and preserve foods (Kurlansky 5–6). Salt is far more than a mineral: it has served as money, it saves lives, and it can contribute to high blood pressure. Whether good or evil, it is clearly a little of both.

Fascinatingly, when sugar was first encountered in Europe, it was compared to salt. Food historian Toussaint-Samat notes that "medieval Europe called the crystallized sap of sugar cane 'white salt' or 'Indian salt'" (Toussaint-Samat 552). Many people believe the Chinese first discovered how to make sugar from cane, but others credit the Indians, who are thought to have taught the Chinese. Toussaint-Samat adds, "Sugar cane, a giant grass, is native to India and particularly the Ganges delta" (Toussaint-Samat 552). Some writings suggest that Indians were eating cane and cane syrup as long ago as 1200 B.C. Initially, in ancient cultures, sugar was used only in medicines to make them more palatable.

Sugar was imported from India into Europe, but it was the Arabs who built the first sugar refinery, sometime around the year 1000 (Toussaint-Samat 552–553). They cultivated cane and established refineries and plantations in other parts of the world, growing increasingly wealthy as a result. Venetians later built the first modern sugar refinery, improved upon Arab techniques, and established their own refineries around the world. Like salt, sugar became immensely popular in Europe and began to be heavily traded. Also like salt, it was taxed in most countries. By the time cargoes of sugar reached European ports and then their final destinations, many layers of taxation had been added, making sugar, like salt, a symbol of wealth and success. As one historian notes, "A sugar-loaf could weigh anything between one pound and 20 pounds, but whatever it weighed it was worth that weight in silver" (Toussaint-Samat 555).

By the sixteenth century, it was discovered that sugar cane grew exceptionally well in the New World that Christopher Columbus had encountered, particularly in the Caribbean. Toussaint-Samat notes, "in 1506 one Pedro d'Arrance took sugar cane to Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic. It grew there so profusely that by 1518 the island had eight sugar plantations" (Toussaint-Samat 556). As sugar became more readily available, its price dropped and the middle class could afford it. As early as 1600, one observer wrote, "That which was once a remedy now serves us as food" (Toussaint-Samat 557). Sugar cane became another form of currency, and entire economies were built on it—until falling prices threatened to destroy the economies of the West Indies and the French Atlantic seaports, which had come to depend almost entirely on sugar for trade and income.