Sunday, January 24, 2010

Some Quick Thoughts on Salt

In ancient Hebrew and Arabic, the words for war and peace derive from the words for salt and bread.  It is well known salt was incredibly important in the pre-modern world.  Roman soldiers jealously guarded the salt fields near Palestine and controlled the caravan routes that brought this commodity westward.  In fact, Roman soldiers were partially paid in salt which is where we get the word 'soldier' from the Latin sal dare (to give salt) and the word 'salary.'  In the Middle Ages, nations such as England built their foreign policies around the imperative of securing southern sea-salt supplies.  The phrase "to be worth one's salt" and the compliment "salt of the earth" arose out of the high value of salt.

Of course in modern times, though it is still incredibly important, salt is substantially cheaper because of its abundant supply.   My question is: What commodity today has such importance and high value in day to day life?  There is an obvious answer.  But there is also another resource that may be in short supply sooner than we think that could drastically affect the global economy...Comment with your guesses and thoughts!

Read the answer here

6 comments:

  1. young people in many parts of the old world

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  2. The obvious answer is phosphor.
    Look at the market prices

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  3. Drinking water will be in short supply in near future.
    Student from CIBM at GU

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  4. Most immediate commodity is Oil since almost everything on planet Earth is produced from or through the use of oil.
    Student from CIBM at GU

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  5. Thanks so much for all the comments!

    To the reader who brought up phosphor:
    Although it commands a high price because of its relative scarcity, it also does not have the universal importance that salt had and still has. It has, in fact, many everyday applications, but we do not see wars fought over phosphor reserves.

    The answer to the question will be posted soon.

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  6. I have posted the answer. Check it out: http://michaelczinkota.blogspot.com/2010/01/answer-to-salt-riddle.html

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