Currently, we are concerned about salt only because of the negative effects that consuming it in excess can have on health. However, historically, salt gave many headaches to both the population and the states. It was a scarce product, whose obtaining was complicated, and its need was very high: at a time when electric refrigeration did not exist, salt fulfilled the role of preserving food for a long time. For this reason, its obtaining, circulation and commercialization was the subject of a state monopoly in different countries, including Spain, until its disestablishment occurred after the revolutionary Sexennium, with a bill that arrived in 1869.
Salt, just as tobacco continues to be today, was a tobacconist: a product whose exploitation belonged to the state. “It was the first product to be traded internationally, one of the first industries and, inevitably, one of the first state monopolies,” says Mark Kurlansky in Salt. A World History (Walker and Company, 2002).
The legislation on salt was based on Roman law: as Juliá Pastor y Rodríguez tells in Estudio sobre el desestanco de la sal (M. Tello, 1880), it was after the founding of the first salt mines in Ostia, by Anco Marcio, who A state monopoly on salt was established, which wanted to prevent its speculation.
Unlike Italy, where until 1970 there were stores that sold salt and tobacco tobacconists (which is why in Spanish, these stores are known as 'estancos'), among other things, in Spain salt was sold in the so-called alfolíes, points administered first by the monarchy and established during the time of Alfonso XI. Previously, his predecessor, Alfonso arbitrariness, in addition to the bribery to which this practice lent itself so well, not to mention the one that was of course inferred to the towns due to the difference in prices,” Pastor y Rodríguez relates. For this reason, the albareros were replaced by the alfolíes in 1347.
“Salt was considered white gold,” explains Xavier Castro, professor of contemporary history at the University of Santiago de Compostela, part of the Institut Europeen D’Histoire de L’Alimentation and author of Galician Yantares. History of the Atlantic diet (University of Santiago de Compostela, 2013) and Cooks with talent (Transforma, 2023). “The states knew it was indispensable and that is why they were clear that in order to finance themselves they had to turn it into a monopoly, just as happened in Spain, which lasted about five hundred years. Just like the wine monopoly, the salt monopoly was a very profitable business. However, it was a historical complaint of the population that led to multiple popular protests.”
The administrative regime of the salt industry produced numerous inconveniences for all parties. It was not until the ruling of the pragmatics of August 10, 1564 when all the salt mines were incorporated into the Spanish Crown, by which the salt industry was established and a special court was established to ensure that no inconvenience arose from its commercialization: the Salt Council.
Of course, the salt monopoly was a great source of revenue. It was an essential ingredient for the population both for preserving and cooking. “Salt was a necessity for life, with great symbolic and economic importance, at a time when a diet based on cereals and vegetables was supplemented with animals that were killed at home,” recalls Kurlansky.
Precisely for this reason, the price of salt increased as a result of different taxes that would be used, for example, for the construction and repair of roads damaged during the War of Succession, at which time a Royal Decree was issued by which the towns had to make mandatory collection of salt, an amount that was calculated according to the number of neighbors and livestock, among others.
Likewise, Venice in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries saw between 30% and 50% of the merchandise it imported made of salt. “All the salt went through government bodies. The Camera Salis gave licenses to merchants that indicated how much salt they could export and at what price,” says Kurlansky, who adds that this financed the construction and preservation of the palatial public buildings and the hydraulic system that keeps the city standing. “The prized appearance of Venice, many of its statues and ornamentation, were financed by this salt administration.” As a result of salt taxes, there were industries that were affected in Spain: the price of fish became very expensive given that salt was the main ingredient for its preservation.
The end of the monopoly took place after the La Gloriosa revolution of 1868. “Political events brought to the practical field the facts, converted into laws, the works and projects that had been maturing in the previous years,” says Pastor y Rodríguez. The discussion that the Marquis of Albaida, José María Orense, began in 1855 on the destagnation law was taken up by him himself in 1869, when he presented to the Cortes a bill that established the principle of freedom for both the tobacco industry and to that of salt. Although the first encountered some opposition, the unblocking of salt did not meet any resistance, and on January 1, 1870, the monopoly was put to an end.
Casto explains that the monopoly ended, among other things, because it was replaced by different taxes. “The salt stagnation caused deep discomfort: there was protest and displeasure, especially among the women who were the ones who worried about daily supplies. The administration of salt prevented women from being able to easily cook and preserve, something essential in our salt-based pork culture. It was General Prim who decisively took on the protest and who defended the salt monopoly. So much so that in Galicia the cry “Long live Prim e or cheap salt!” was popular. The historian also states that the end of the salt monopoly helped greatly improve gastronomy: “its free sale facilitated the spread of the potato, which at that time was not yet widely consumed because without salt, the cachelos tasted like hell. ”.
