Yeah, I am not going to lie. I was really worried when I was handed this rather large book about salt. I could not figure out how you could relate salt to history. The was rather dry in some places but I found a few things to be interresting. Also I was so impressed about how much salt meant to the people in China and society itself.
When I thought of salt, I thought of salt, what else is there to it. Today in America we are told a lot of salt consumption is very bad for you but yet we need it to survive. The Chinese figured that out, that they needed salt to survive. To the people back then in China salt meant wealth for the government, it meant being healthy, and the price of salt changed like the stock markets today.
The collection of salt came from the lakes where they would collect it each time the lake would dry up. Then they got the idea of evaporating the water which would take less time. They were smart little Chinese people back then. haha. Any way they would plaec water into jugs and boil the water and collect it that way. The salt collectors then started to drill for it in the ground. The first well was more like a pit and went deeper then 300 feet. The Chinese then got smarted and was able to dig wells narrower and deeper. There was a problem with this though. People just started to become weak/ sick and die. Also some explosions of flames would spit out and it would kill and entire crew. The people of China thought that there was an evil spirit form the underworld that came up through the holes. The thought this was really funny, but I would probably have thought the same.
The well workers soon figured out that it was an invisible substance and could cook with it. They started to pipe this invisible substance to boiling houses where they would put pots of water to evaporate and take the salt. This was basicly the first use of natural gas in the world.
The government eventually got smart and said hey, all humans need salt to stay healthy and for survival so why not set a tax on salt. They figured the government would make money because everybody would need to buy it. The people of China did not like this because they did not feel that it was fair that they had to be taxed for items and was a necessity. That is kind of how it is today isn't it?
When I thought of salt, I thought of salt, what else is there to it. Today in America we are told a lot of salt consumption is very bad for you but yet we need it to survive. The Chinese figured that out, that they needed salt to survive. To the people back then in China salt meant wealth for the government, it meant being healthy, and the price of salt changed like the stock markets today.
The collection of salt came from the lakes where they would collect it each time the lake would dry up. Then they got the idea of evaporating the water which would take less time. They were smart little Chinese people back then. haha. Any way they would plaec water into jugs and boil the water and collect it that way. The salt collectors then started to drill for it in the ground. The first well was more like a pit and went deeper then 300 feet. The Chinese then got smarted and was able to dig wells narrower and deeper. There was a problem with this though. People just started to become weak/ sick and die. Also some explosions of flames would spit out and it would kill and entire crew. The people of China thought that there was an evil spirit form the underworld that came up through the holes. The thought this was really funny, but I would probably have thought the same.
The well workers soon figured out that it was an invisible substance and could cook with it. They started to pipe this invisible substance to boiling houses where they would put pots of water to evaporate and take the salt. This was basicly the first use of natural gas in the world.
The government eventually got smart and said hey, all humans need salt to stay healthy and for survival so why not set a tax on salt. They figured the government would make money because everybody would need to buy it. The people of China did not like this because they did not feel that it was fair that they had to be taxed for items and was a necessity. That is kind of how it is today isn't it?
4 comments:
Haha yeah very true about the government today. You did a pretty good job of pretending the book was sort of interesting just like I did so congrats. If you'd like to see someone be completely blunt and honest about it, I suggest you check out Millie's blog. :P
Sup tool!
Yeah...when we got this book and saw what it was about i was definitely a bit worried, too...but its really not too bad, I don't think. Like you said, theres a couple pretty interesting parts here and there.
YOU TOOL.
the book can be dry i agree
but i mean who doesn't love salt
ps love you tool
i should put our TOOL pic up from well you know ;)!
Most kids are taken aback when I hand them the title, but to be quite honest, I really don't care that some find it dry or strange. The point behind reading it is Mr. K ties in something so commonon place in today's world and links it to history. My job isn't to "entertain" you, it is to educate you. Sometimes the twain do not always meet. Assignments can't be fun all the time.
The book does a good job showing just how important salt was to China, both in curing food and for tax purposes. Neat observations on the Chinese mining, and problems with hitting natural gas (explosions). They thought that demons lived in the earth, but meanwhile it was just s simple spark that touched off the natural gas to ignite. I guess it just goes to show how simple people rationalize events they don't understand?
Great blog so far. Lengthy and indepth comments. I enjoyed reading.
Mr. Farrell
Post a Comment