In comparison to today’s bargain prices? I have heard that gold was once worth more than gold. Is this true? Does that mean that salt would have been worth several hundred of today’s dollars?
Thanks.
I meant to say “I have heard that salt was once worth more than gold”. 
The way I’ve heard it is that pepper corns were once set at their own weight in gold, and to sell it for less was punishable by death (that way the King would always have some to buy). They were hard to come by because they did not grow in Europe.
I would think salt would be a lot cheaper as there are huge deposits to mine or you can evaporate sea water.
The Romans once paid their soldiers in salt. Hence, “salary.”
At a salt mine in Poland they told us that the workers were searched in the early days, like in a diamond mine.
Wow. Al you ever wanted to know about salt (and more) at:
http://salt.org.il/news_arch.htm
I thought the “salary” attributation had been debunked? 
well, I saw it debunked, then re-bunked at a site (which of course I can’t find now.) dammit. Okay, possibly ignore that part.
Sorry if it sounded like I was picking on your post, Hello Again - I just honestly wanted to know if it had come full circle again.
(Dad mode again) You could look it up…
It’s probable that people have valued salt over gold at one time or another. After all, salt is a necessity to life and is valuable for preserving foods. We don’t need gold to live.
Not with that link! Try this.
And also the saying “He’s worth his salt.”
Gp
I think you mean pepper.
Although salt was once highly valued, it’s worth was peanuts compared to exotic spices such as pepper, nutmeg (and dare I say… peanuts ;)) J.K.
You couldn’t well afford to build three expensive ships, send the out and hope that in a year or two, one would return with a cargo of salt, now could you?
I don’t know about back then, but saffron these days is still pretty expensive… approx. $2/gram. Converting grams to troy ounces, you get about $62/troy ounce. Not quite the price of gold, but more then ten times the price of silver, at least.
[nitpick]
Salt is not considered a spice - 'tis a mineral.
[/nitpick]
And my dictionary’s etymology of salary says that it was money given to Roman soldiers to buy salt. Oh, that’s the American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed.
[homer]
In America, first you get the the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women
[/homer]
Sugar was an extremely valuable commodity it its heyday, as the sweetener could not be grown in Europe. Only with the development of “beet sugar” in the 19th century did cane sugar prices begin to spiral downward – leaving so many Caribbean islands in an economic lurch for decades afterward.
Warfare amongst European nations (particularly England and Spain) over these sugar-growing islands (Barbados, in particular) was common, due to the high value of sugar.
Since you asked for actual values, here’s the value of various sugar exports (using Barbados, 1665-6, as a sample year during the sugar heyday).
Muscavado sugar: 11,529 metric tons = 205.9
Refined Sugar: 919 metric tons = 34.0
Molasses: 529,943 liters = 3.8
Rum: 567,827 liters = 16.0
The values indicated are in thousands of current pounds sterling. I don’t have the time now to break this down to what that teaspoonful in your morning coffee was worth in 1665, but it shouldn’t be too difficult with these data.
Oh, and I shouldn’t have let the Dutch and French off so easily when singling out warring sugar interests. These two countries became embroiled in Barbadian sugar warfare in 1665 and 1666, respectively.
For you citemongers, all data are from David Eltis’ article, “New Estimates of Exports from Barbados and Jamaica, 1665-1701.”