 Some historians believe that the first civilizations in the world began along the edges of deserts and rivers because of the salt found there and when discussing the history of salt, the best place to begin is China. Dating back to 6000 BC, one of the oldest verifiable salt works can be found at Jishi Lake which is now known as Lake Yongqing and this area was in constant warfare over the control of the valuable salt of this lake. In spite of these early salt fights, the Chinese were the earliest innovators in salt production. They were the first to use the method of boiling ocean water in clay vessels until it reduces to salt crystals and this was the same method that ended up being used throughout southern Europe during the Roman era. One of the earliest writings on salt comes from China around 2700 BC and it mentions 40 different types of salt. How can there be so many different types of salt? Well this is true basic table salt is sodium chloride but there are lots of different variants that are still considered salt. Who knew? Now the rulers of China figured out pretty early on they could make some serious bank off of salt and it's believed that Emperor Sha Yu was the first to introduce a salt tax for a permanent source of income around 2200 BC. Salt was also so cool it was used as money and it was fashioned in China and various other places as tiny cakes or coins for this purpose. Though it was in 450 BC when Yi Dun created an even more popular method of boiling brine in iron pans to extract the salt which would become the leading technique in the world for almost 2000 years. Now let's shift over to 250 BC where we find not only one of the most amazing engineers in China but all the world, Li Bing who actually created the world's first dam. But what did he have to do with salt? Well he was the one who discovered how to extract salt from man-made wells. Now he even figured out that using bamboo for the piping process was perfect because it's naturally resistant to salt. Yep Li Bing was awesome. As the years of salt extraction went on workers who worked in the wells started getting ill. In addition random explosions and flames started spitting from the well holes from time to time. Now people initially believed that the strange happenings were the fault of evil spirits coming up from the depths and the local politicians would leave gifts at the well holes to keep the spirits from getting angry. Now eventually it was figured out these pockets were caused by natural gas and by 200 AD they figured out how to harness the gas and used it to heat the iron pots used for salt production. It was also around this time that the Chinese isolated salt peter and according to some accounts created an early form of black powder. Though it wasn't until the early Song dynasty that it would be converted into fireworks and for military use as gunpowder making salt even more deadly. Now over the millennia there was a constant battle of how salt should be used for revenue. The Qin dynasty ended up documenting this in the Guanzi which is a written record of basically how salt should be price fixed by the government and this ended up being the common practice for many years. The high prices and big revenues created by salt were not only used to finance China's armies but also in the creation of the Great Wall of China. There was even a massive Confucianist document known as the Discourse on Salt and Iron written because there was just so much debate about how to use salt for finance as the salt monopolies of the time just kept coming in and out of vogue more than Madonna. What was never out of vogue was the usage of salt and around 500 BC we find the Chinese first preserving soybeans and salt which of course led to soy sauce. This brings us up to the Tang dynasty where half, yes half of Chinese revenue came from salt. They even got so brazen about their salt wealth that they would serve pure salt at the dinner table. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal now but back then that was a huge extravagance as even to this day table salt isn't something the Chinese tend to add after cooking but by this time the whole salt monopoly thing had gone too far and in 880 riots over the salt monopolies led to a mob taking over the city of Xi'an and a man named Wang Chao led a rebellion that actually took over the government of China for a short time and though he didn't keep control after he died the government was in such disarray it led to the ball of the Tang dynasty score another one for salt now from here in China salt charted a pretty straight course as a resource war tool food additive until the industrial revolution came along and caused it to change its course pretty dramatically now while they have changed over time government controlled salt monopolies have existed in one form or another until today in 2017 China stated they would take measures to ease the salt monopolies but as of this recording looks like they haven't given up complete control just yet and we've only begun to scratch the surface of the history of salt want to learn more stay tuned to part two the revenge of salt but for now to learn more about salt you're gonna want to watch this video right here please be kind take care of each other and yeah salt is tasty but don't go starting any wars over it seriously