ScienceToday

1. Salary

Many moons ago, when money wasn’t one of the most important things, salt was. For example, in Ancient Rome, after a long day at work for the Roman Empire, soldiers used to receive a handful of salt as a payment for a day. The expression “being worth one’s salt” comes from this, because the soldiers who did a great job, were worth their salt payment.

According to historian Pliny the Elder, the word salary derives from the word salt. He mentions that in one of his books, “Natural History”.

2. Holy salt

Salt or sodium chloride – as it is called by chemists – it is actually mentioned over 40 times in the Bible. Every verse where salt is mentioned has a different meaning and a symbol. These symbols can vary from:

• covenant – salt is used as a preservative, so it means that is going to make different things last longer. There is an expression used in the Bible, “covenant of salt”, which means that the covenant is something sacred and it is meant to last for a long time, just like salt;
• friendship and loyalty – many years ago, in the Biblical days, salt was used to seal friendships between people, because the essence of it doesn’t change. For example, in Judaism and Islam, salt was used to seal a bargain, because of its quality. In addition to that, it also symbolizes God’s love for people;
• preservative – salt is used in order to sustain life, so the analogy in the Bible means that God wants to sustain people and to keep his promises towards them.

3. Salt and the Civil War

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forced tried to capture Saltville, Virginia, which was the site of a salt processing plant, that was sustaining the beleaguered armies from the South.

When the Union officials saw that the key to feeding people in the South was actually salt, they targeted the southerners, because they had built their own facilities to produce salt.

The salt battle was one strategy that the Union had, in order to create an economic starvation against the South.