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 Today, we can get salt very
easily. When we need salt, all we have to
do is go to the supermarket with a small amount of money. For most
of us, salt is just another seasoning. But a long time ago, it was very
valuable. In fact, salt has been very
important to life in many ways historically. In ancient times, Roman soldiers were paid their
salaries in the form of salt!
Salt is essential for life and for
good health. And we cannot live
without it. Salt is a crystalline solid, found in nature. It is obtained
from seawater or rock deposits. Sea salt comes
in fine or larger crystals. Chemically, salt is a mineral called “Sodium Chloride염화나트륨”
(NaCl). There are different forms of edible salt: unrefined salt, refined salt, and table salt.
 Salt
includes not only sodium
chloride, but other vital trace minerals. The sodium
it contains helps maintain the fluid in our blood cells. However, over consumption can also
cause health problems such as high blood pressure.
So, when did people start using salt? No one knows exactly when people started
using it. But salt was in general use a long way back in history. People used it to
preserve food. But in ancient
times, salt was difficult to get. So it became a highly valued trade item throughout history. Until the 1900s, salt even
brought on wars.
 In ancient
times, Roman soldiers were paid their salaries in the form of salt.
The word soldier comes from the Roman word “saldare.” It means “to give salt.” The
Latin word “salarium” also
means salt money. The Ancient Greeks also created the expression “not worth his salt.”
In the 12th Century, people could buy gold with salt in the Mali Empire말리
제국. According to the Venetian
traveler Marco Polo who journeyed to China, the people
of Tibet also used packets of salt as money.
Today, most refined salt is prepared from rock salt: mineral deposits
high in edible salt. These rock salt deposits were formed by the evaporation of ancient salt
lakes. Only about 7 percent
of refined salt is used as a food additive. The majority is used for industrial purposes like manufacturing
pulp and paper. |
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