[Sca-cooks] Columbus and salt

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Mon Oct 11 20:58:34 PDT 2010


Suey said:
<<< All reports of Columbus are overshadowed by what the writer wants to 
convey. Kate has brought out that gold and conversion to Christianity 
were the reasons for the voyage in her book, In my book they are salt 
first and spices second.>>>

Why do you specify salt? This is the first I've heard of this possibility. I don't think I remember Columbus coming up in the books on the history of salt that I've read. Salt was produced in the Mediterranean and while it could be fairly expensive, it was no where near as expensive as spices and the main reason it was expensive was because of the taxes levied on it.

Unlike spices, salt was not being imported from Asia, so I'm not sure why Columbus would set off for Asia hoping to find salt.

I happen to agree with much of the rest of what you and Daniel have to say. I doubt that conversions played much of an initial reason for the voyages of exploration, except perhaps as a handy excuse, but I think it did play a part.

If Columbus hadn't made his voyages, or as was quite likely, he didn't make it back, I imagine someone else would have made similar voyages in the next hundred years, and it is possible they had already. So, while I'm not sure that Columbus should be "lionized", he shouldn't be blamed for the bad effects either. If it hadn't already happened, it is quite possible that one of those ships plying the route to the Grand Banks would have been blown on to the Americas. And that ship and it's crew needn't survive or get back to Europe to start the spread of new diseases to the New World.

Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****





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