Casey: Salt and the Salt Merchants of Tianjin
A. Salt as a preserver of food
B. Earliest written record of salt production dates to 800 B.C.
C.
Many wars were fought over the control of a salty body
of water in China calld Lake Yuncheng
D.
The Romans developed over 60 saltworks
in the lands under their control. Rome
needed the mineral
for the army’s livestock, horses and soldiers.
Sometimes soldiers were paid in salt, hence the origin of the word
“salary”
E. Salt was extremely important for the British army. The standard procedure to prepare for war was to obtain a large quantity of salt and start salting fish and meat.
F. Without sodium the body would lose it’s ability to transport nutrients throughout the body.
II.
How the Chinese harvested their salt
A. Sea salt pumped into evaporation ponds
B. Drilling of brine wells. In 252 B.C. a man named Li Bing ordered the drilling of the world’s first brine well. In 1835, the Chinese were drilling as far down as 3,300 ft. 25 years later, Americans were celebrating a depth of 69.5 ft.
III.
The Salt Merchants of Tianjin
A. Everyone needed it, so it was a great tax generator
B.
Merchants made a bundle buying and selling salt.
C.
Powerful merchant families developed
D.
While the families became rich, so did the state officials with kickbacks
and payoffs
E.
Merchants would donate heavily tot he Emperor to curry favor
IV.
Smuggling and Corruption
A. Flawed weighing procedure: the weight system would be set under or over depending on the merchant.
B. Merchants would add “adulterants’ to the salt (dirt, water, gypsum, alum)
C. Punishments ranged from bamboo strokes, forfeiture of salary, banishment for three years
V.
Woman in Merchant Society
A. Woman had the right to buy and sell property
B. Could be partners in the family’s salt monopoly
C. Widows could represent and operate monopolies on behalf of their deceased husband
D. Participation was sanctioned legally though hidden from view.
VI.
The Beginning of the End
A. Jealousy and merchant’s abuse of power contributed
B. Schism between up and coming merchant-gentry and the well established scholar-gentry
C. Communists abolished remaining system