Academic Reading
The importance of salt
ASalt is essential to human life, and for much of history it was so valuable that it was traded like money. Because it could preserve meat and fish long before refrigeration existed, salt allowed food to be stored and transported over great distances.
BWhole trade routes and even cities grew up around the salt trade, and taxes on salt have sparked protests and rebellions. Today salt is cheap and plentiful, mined from the ground or obtained by evaporating seawater, but its long history reminds us how precious it once was.