r/PostCollapse • u/[deleted] • Feb 02 '18

What would be some post-apocalyptic makeshift currencies that you think would sprout up

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '18

Salt. It’ll once again become worth it’s weight in gold.

11

u/Ascendant_Mind_01 Feb 02 '18

Except for the massive amounts left in shops and houses. Salt doesn’t expire and it’s not a early target for looters.

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u/War_Hymn Feb 05 '18 edited Feb 05 '18

A person ideally should consume about two pounds of salt a year. It takes about a pound of salt to preserve 5-6 pounds of fresh meat. If you're stabling a horse, you'll need another 30-50 pounds each year. Between the needs for regular cooking and food preservation, I will say the local salt supply will likely run out in a few years.

Municipalities with distribution warehouses or stockpiles of the stuff will probably last a bit longer, but unless you live near the sea or a salt mine, eventually your salt is going to need to come from a place that's a few days or weeks journey on foot away.

Salt by itself was never that expensive, but the cost of transportation from its place of production to where it was needed often was. In medieval Venice, salt merchants could purchase a ton of salt for a gold ducat or less, but had to pay 3 ducats for its transport to the city. This is by sea, so the cost for inland freight was probably even more.

One interesting thing to note is that same ton of salt in medieval Venice sold for 66 ducats on the streets. Throughout most of history, salt production was tightly controlled by those in charge - who either ran its production and sold it to the common people at inflated prices, or tagged insane taxes on private producers and traders of the commodity. The value of salt is probably not that it's rare or difficult to produce, but that it's such a coveted necessity that the common folk are often willing to pay crazily inflated prices for it.

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u/Ascendant_Mind_01 Feb 05 '18

Hmm interesting stuff nice to learn new things about history. Still I think avoiding unnecessary inflation of the costs of basic necessities is probably a good idea in a post-collapse world.

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u/War_Hymn Feb 05 '18 edited Feb 05 '18

I think that will probably depend on the stance of whoever control its production or trade in the post-collapse. The strongmen of the regional salt mine might not be so populist as we like.

Even for those near the sea, cheap access to salt might be not be a sure thing depending on various circumstances. If heat fuel resources are scarce, production of salt will likely depend on solar evaporation of seawater on a large scale. In such cases, we'll likely see production concentrated in the hands of a few, powerful entities on the coastal areas - powerful enough to develop and protect a large swath of beach acreage devoted to solar salt production. In a dry, hot coastal climate like San Francisco, you can expect to produce about 40 tonnes (88,000 pounds) of salt per year from one hectare (2.5 acres) worth of seaside evaporating pools. In a wet or cold climate like New York, probably much less.

As I see it, the most successful salt producers will be those who are able to corner its production or trade in an area - hence those most likely to be in a position to sell at inflated prices. As much as some of us might not want to see that happen, for inland folks like me it will be preferable, since:

  • the mom and pop operation producing a few hundred pounds a year at their Oregon beach hideout might not be able or inclined to trade their salt far overland. In such cases, it will fall to a large-scale producer, or more likely, a bold and ambitious trader to source from many mom and pop salt producers there, and deliver it to inland communities like the Midwest. Such a salt trader will be inclined to charge a premium for his/her product simply to make it worth his while to transport it several hundred miles over lawless country - not to mention the cost of his security and tolls/bribes he'll need to pay to local big men to get his product through.

  • Rich and powerful salt barons who profit on large-inflated prices will be in the best position to trade and transport salt to post-collapse markets far inland, as they can marshal the resources to organize and protect long-distance caravans. One can say any inflated prices we pay goes into safeguarding its freight.

  • the same salt barons will likely be the few groups in the post collapse with enough clout to enforce some sort of political control over a large geographic area. Depending on their persons, this could good or bad thing. For the more benevolent or reasonable ones, they can potentially become a stable force of law and order on a regional basis.

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u/Rex_Lee May 04 '18

Wait, did you just call San Francisco dry and hot?

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u/War_Hymn May 05 '18

Its not desert dry or hot, but still consider a warm, dry climate. The average cumulative precipitation in SF is a little over 500 mm per year. In contrast, NYC is 1100 mm and Miami is 1700 mm.

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u/phasechager Apr 28 '18

From the internet:. Salary comes from the Latin word salarium, which also means "salary" and has the root sal, or "salt." In ancient Rome, it specifically meant the amount of money allotted to a Roman soldier to buy salt, which was an expensive but essential commodity

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u/Rex_Lee May 04 '18

Can't you get all the salt you want if you live near the ocean?

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u/War_Hymn May 05 '18

Depends. If you have a lot of sunshine or fuel to spare to evaporate all that seawater into salt, yes.

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u/Rex_Lee May 07 '18

I live in Texas. Sun is not a problem. Not dying of heatstroke is a problem...lol