Why weren’t tallow or beeswax the most valuable trading commodities in ancient times?

[T & P]

(Outside of precious metals or jewels, I mean)

As most people know, salt was such a valuable commodity it was used as currency. But given that indoors illumination would have been one of the most essential everyday needs for the best part of two millennia in civilisations across the globe, I would imagine candles or wall torches, and the raw materials required to make them, would have been as crucial to anyone with a roof over their heads from humble villagers to kings as electricity/ gas is to mankind now.

Yet the impression I get from my limited knowledge of human history is that salt and spices were what most peoples around the world valued the most.

Weren’t tallow fat/ beeswax merchants the Shell & BP of their day, and candlemakers the most lucrative and best paid professions? It feels to me that for most people the commodity they offered would have mattered far more than bloody salt or paprika.

 

[Cloo]

I think maybe it was just that people didn't stay up as much once it got dark? They just went to bed because you basically couldn't see shit once the sun was down.

 

[Epona]

What Cloo said, also you get tallow every time an animal is killed for meat and leather, so it was plentiful.
Most candles would have been made from animal fat. (Non-smelly beeswax ones would I imagine be more expensive and used by the wealthy).
Mediterranean areas used oil lamps that burned olive oil.
Lots of different solutions to create light tbh.

 

[T & P]

I think maybe it was just that people didn't stay up as much once it got dark? They just went to bed because you basically couldn't see shit once the sun was down.

Fuck, that’s a depressing thought for people near either Pole in the winter months.

However, middle class citizens, not to mention rulers, monarchs, temples etc would have surely have both the need and wealth to buy them. The demand would have been there.

 

[Epona]

Fuck, that’s a depressing thought for people near either Pole in the winter months.

However, middle class citizens, not to mention rulers, monarchs, temples etc would have surely have both the need and wealth to buy them. The demand would have been there.

People near the poles would have used whale and other marine mammal fats, likely in lumps in lamps rather than in candles

 

[yield]

Fuck, that’s a depressing thought for people near either Pole in the winter months.

among societies like the Inuit or Kwakiutl, times of seasonal congregation were also ritual seasons, almost entirely given over to dances, rites and dramas. Sometimes these could involve creating temporary kings or even ritual police with real coercive powers (though, often, peculiarly, these ritual police doubled as clowns). In other cases, they involved dissolving norms of hierarchy and propriety, as in the Inuit midwinter orgies.

- The Dawn Of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

 

[newme]

Beeswax used to go for more than 10x what the honey went for.

 

[Santino]

Presumably you'd just have a fire that provided light as well as heat.

 

[The39thStep]

I think maybe it was just that people didn't stay up as much once it got dark? They just went to bed because you basically couldn't see shit once the sun was down.

There was a period in England when people went to sleep early in the darker months then woke up around midnight or so breaking the sleep and then went back to sleep again until rising in the morning . I am not sure how widespread that was in Europe let alone the rest of the world but you'd need some lighting for that?

( edit) article here

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?

www.bbc.com

 

[pug]

The church bought up almost the whole supply of beeswax for their candles, bees were wild then an had to be foraged for with the nest being destroyed.
Poor people used tallow etc

 

[T & P]

Presumably you'd just have a fire that provided light as well as heat.

Yeah, I guess people made do by whichever means.

Still, I still struggle to understand salt of all things was valued more. Whereas some cultures learned to use it as a food preservative, I am sure others didn’t use it for that purpose. And as a food additive/ flavour enhancer alone, it seems far less important than something to make light with, never mind produce heat. I know which one I’d rather have plenty of at all times.

 

[Santino]

Yeah, I guess people made do by whichever means.

Still, I still struggle to understand salt of all things was valued more. Whereas some cultures learned to use it as a food preservative, I am sure others didn’t use it for that purpose. And as a food additive/ flavour enhancer alone, it seems far less important than something to make light with, never mind produce heat. I know which one I’d rather have plenty of at all times.

There's an old fairytale about a king and his three daughters (clearly related to King Lear) where the king asks his daughters how much they love him. One compares him to gold and silver, one to precious jewels, and the third (virtuous) daughter to salt. He gets very cross and exiles her and all salt from his kingdom, which makes everyone so miserable that he realises his error and has to apologise and bring her back.

 

[WouldBe]

,it seems far less important than something to make light with, never mind produce heat.

If your having to have an open fire to heat your home and to cook why would you spend money you probably haven't got to provide extra light?

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

If your having to have an open fire to heat your home and to cook why would you spend money you probably haven't got to provide extra light?

Mind your own beeswax!

 

[T & P]

If your having to have an open fire to heat your home and to cook why would you spend money you probably haven't got to provide extra light?

I get that, but I’d still choose that over salt if given the choice unless I happened to be in the business of selling meat or fish.

 

[Spandex]

Still, I still struggle to understand salt of all things was valued more. Whereas some cultures learned to use it as a food preservative, I am sure others didn’t use it for that purpose. And as a food additive/ flavour enhancer alone, it seems far less important than something to make light with, never mind produce heat. I know which one I’d rather have plenty of at all times.

I think you underestimate the importance of salt as a preservative in a time before fridges and freezers, before supermarkets and mass food distribution. Salt was key to feeding the masses - salted fish, meats and vegetables all had long lifes and didn't have to be eaten fresh. It's also something you can't just go out anywhere and pick up - you need brine ponds or salt mines and they don't run themselves.

 

[Cid]

I get that, but I’d still choose that over salt if given the choice unless I happened to be in the business of selling meat or fish.

Or, y'know, curing your own. Or pickling veg. Is there a culture that doesn't have some history of fermentation? Doubt it. Salt is essential, we underestimate its importance in a world of overabundance, but do any endurance exercise or something and you quickly realise that your average farmer would need decent amounts. It's also a scarce resource because obviously you need either a) a coast and all the space/environment for evaporative production or b) a rock salt deposit. So for huge polities like Rome or China demand is often going to outstrip supply, particularly if your military is active.

 

[JimW]

Yantielun 鹽鐵論 (www.chinaknowledge.de) Salt features in one of the earliest Chinese works on political economy

 

[The39thStep]

There is of course that marvellous book by Mark Kurlansky on the value of salt in trade routes , wars and revolutions

 

[Kaka Tim]

bees were wild then an had to be foraged for with the nest being destroyed.

Bees were domesticated over 4000 years ago. And was sidespread in England by medeival times - many bee hives are listed in the doomsday book.

 

[Gromit]

1. Salt is required by the body for biological stuff to do with water
2. Most people couldn't read.
3. Night light didn't really become a thing until reading and writing in the dark became a necessary part of the economy.
4. Night mobs really require torches dipped in pitch for the correct aesthetic.

 

[Kaka Tim]

I remember reading a thing about why gold eneded up being currency that was interesting -
its rare enough to be valuable but not too rare.
Its stable - doesnt corrode or decay or melt and it not toxic
Its portable and can be shaped into coins or whatever you want.

With salt you have certain useful properties that make it good for currency-
relatively uncommon.
also non-toxic, portable and doesnt decay or degrade if stored properly.
I would guess farily hard to adulterate cos its white powder (farily rare in pre-modern times?) that would show impurities and just tasting it would alert you if there was significent amounts of crap added to it.
Its pretty standard - salt is salt - doesn't vary in quality.
Its universally used so useful as comodity or currency.

For other useful items you havent got the same spread of properties -
timber - too bulky and large variety of types and quality.
most food stuffs spoil and again vary in quality. A pound of cheese could be very different from another pound of cheese.
Flour - too bulky.
metals items - nails, tools, pins would vary in quality and type. And many could be suceptable to rust. Ditto things like animal hides. Or oils and fats.
Salt (like gold) is a constant.
Dunno if alreayd mentioned - but its where we get the word "salary" from.

 

[JimW]

I remember reading a thing about why gold eneded up being currency that was interesting -
its rare enough to be valuable but not too rare.
Its stable - doesnt corrode or decay or melt and it not toxic
Its portable and can be shaped into coins or whatever you want.

With salt you have certain useful properties that make it good for currency-
relatively uncommon.
also non-toxic, portable and doesnt decay or degrade if stored properly.
I would guess farily hard to adulterate cos its white powder (farily rare in pre-modern times?) that would show impurities and just tasting it would alert you if there was significent amounts of crap added to it.
Its pretty standard - salt is salt - doesn't vary in quality.
Its universally used so useful as comodity or currency.

For other useful items you havent got the same spread of properties -
timber - too bulky and large variety of types and quality.
most food stuffs spoil and again vary in quality. A pound of cheese could be very different from another pound of cheese.
Flour - too bulky.
metals items - nails, tools, pins would vary in quality and type. And many could be suceptable to rust. Ditto things like animal hides. Or oils and fats.
Salt (like gold) is a constant.
Dunno if alreayd mentioned - but its where we get the word "salary" from.

Read accounts of nomad displays of wealth where they would have bags of grain hanging in the tent (which would have to be traded in from some distance) but often it was by now inedible due to being used for this for years on end rather than eaten. Status was important though presumably they might have cracked it in some long lean winter.

 

[bellaozzydog]

(Outside of precious metals or jewels, I mean)

As most people know, salt was such a valuable commodity it was used as currency. But given that indoors illumination would have been one of the most essential everyday needs for the best part of two millennia in civilisations across the globe, I would imagine candles or wall torches, and the raw materials required to make them, would have been as crucial to anyone with a roof over their heads from humble villagers to kings as electricity/ gas is to mankind now.

Yet the impression I get from my limited knowledge of human history is that salt and spices were what most peoples around the world valued the most.

Weren’t tallow fat/ beeswax merchants the Shell & BP of their day, and candlemakers the most lucrative and best paid professions? It feels to me that for most people the commodity they offered would have mattered far more than bloody salt or paprika.

Locally produced ? No need to import ?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

You don't even have to go that far back to find people using tallow candles. In the 19th century in Slate mines in Wales for examples. Wax candles were available and burnt with a brighter and more consistent flame, but they were to expensive.

Some repeative jobs working underground would be done in near darkeness to save money. I've spent a lot of time down there and still can't get my head around just how tough it would have been.

 

[pug]

Bees were domesticated over 4000 years ago. And was sidespread in England by medeival times - many bee hives are listed in the doomsday book.

Yes, at that time bee's produce was obtained from foraging and beekeeping in the forest where bee keepers would hollow trees and catch swarms as well as keeping them in hives.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Weren’t tallow fat/ beeswax merchants the Shell & BP of their day, and candlemakers the most lucrative and best paid professions? It feels to me that for most people the commodity they offered would have mattered far more than bloody salt or paprika.

Don't forget beeswax was used for lots of other food related purposes too, sealing things. And polish ofcourse.

In ancient times oil lamps were commonly used for lighting across Europe using olive / veg oil.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

There was a period in England when people went to sleep early in the darker months then woke up around midnight or so breaking the sleep and then went back to sleep again until rising in the morning . I am not sure how widespread that was in Europe let alone the rest of the world but you'd need some lighting for that?

( edit) article here

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?

www.bbc.com

I quite often get up in the night, potter about a bit. I rarely need to switch on a light unless there is no moon refection at all.
When people talk about the two sleeps thing, there is more mention of pottering about or visiting mates, rather than reading, sewing or operating machinery. . . . I'm always fine operating my toilet machinery in the dark.

 

[WouldBe]

Salt (like gold) is a constant.

Gold doesn't dissolve if it gets wet.

 

[yield]

Follow the Ancient Amber Road
smithsonianmag August 28, 2019
See the remnants and relics of key routes between Venice and St. Petersburg for transporting amber through the ancient world

Since about 3000 BCE, amber found its way out of the Baltic Coast region to greater Europe and beyond, carried by traders and travelers along a series of routes, intersecting with the salt and silk roads. According to Anna Sobecka, an amber art expert with the International Amber Association, the resinous gemstone made it all the way to Egypt, adorning the breast ornament of Tutankhamun. Baltic amber has also been found at Mycenae in Greece, and in the Royal Tomb of Qatna in Syria.