Cheese...

This chapter made me so hungry with the talk about ham, salami, and cheese. I love cheese and it is something I eat almost every chance I get. Also the chapter was a very good ending to what we have to read for the class, the only down side was that it was a tad boring.

I have to throw something out there. What was wrong with people, they tied slaves by their necks and made them walk just for salt. That is some serious torture it you ask me, what was going through their heads.

I had no idea that ham was a long and tideous process and there was weird ways of testing ham. Like sticking the knife it the center and smelling it and also the whole thing about the wind affecting the ham completely amazed me. I had no idea about the whole ham thing.

Also I did not know that salt was the main factor on the aging of cheese. The the whole thing about moldy cheese completely makes me want to throw up. How can people eat that. I learned there was a large variety of cheeses as well.

Towards the end of the chapter the Mediterranean no longer was the center of the world in means of salt. It was Spain’s turn to bask in the glory. Spain had their golden age and was then the focus. Like we keep being told in class every empire or what you choose to call them has their golden age where they have all the power and look unstopable. Where does the United States fit on that spectrum?

Overall the book was pretty interesting and I am still impressed how the whole thing related to salt. It was really neat how salt impacted the empires back then considering what it means to us now.

Marco....polo

When the Roman empire fell it left the Mediterranean sea completely up for grabs. This sea was the most economical important region of the western world. There was no clear leader but many trying to get power. This area from the most competitive during this time since the Phoenicians.
The whole coast of the Mediterranean sea was covered with saltwarks, small operations, and big enterprises.

Then came along Venice which was an Italian city. The Venetians built salt ponds along the new land. They used rollers but it is not quite clear what these rollers actually were. They were either using rollers to smooth down the floors of the ponds or in pottery, both were popular. Instead of trapping the water in aopne pond and waiting for it to dry up, they used a series of ponds. The first one was large open tank and had a system of pumps that moved the water to the pond and so on. The water then evaportated further and the brine became denser. It was a continuous flow. This was a very complicated process I think but it seemed to work for them. Historians think that the Chinese may have been the first to make this but are unsure.

The Venetians were smart people I tell you. They relized that there would be more money brought in by buying and selling salt then actually producing it. So this idea was basically merchanting.

One last thing, Marco Polo. After reading about him my perspective about the game that is played in the pool is stupid. The two do not relate at all, what is up with that. I mean just thinking about the game and Marco Polo how do you relate the two, somebody tell me.