A salt tax is literally a tax levied directly on salt, usually proportional to the amount of salt purchased (e.g. by the pound). In ancient times, salt was extremely valuable as a preservant, and, in some cultures, nearly worth its weight in gold. Words such as salary are derived from the same root as salt and indicate its vitality to civilizations. As an example, ancient "salaries" could literally be quantities of salt.
Due to the rarity and importance of salt, levying a tax on its commerce was extremely lucrative, but also widely despised and controversial.
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Famous quotes containing the words salt and/or tax:
“It is a grand thing to rise in the world. The ambition to do so is the very salt of the earth. It is the parent of all enterprise, and the cause of all improvement.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.”
—Wendell Berry (b. 1934)