SALT MONOPOLIES  - The mother of monopolies                        1.  FRANCE - LEGABELLE                    2  CHINA                        3  INDIA In the past, Salt was  the ESSENTIAL COMMODITY which conferred upon its possessors an economic monopoly which formed a means for political pressure on those with no control over its supply.   In France during the 17th and 18 th centuries the indirect taxes - the customs dues, or the excise on goods such as tobacco and wine as well as a number of other tax categories were all very efficiently but sometimes unscrupulously collected by a syndicate of Farmers-General.       Since these dignitaries, had deposited large sums of money for this privilege they had every reason to see that it was profitable.    One of the most oppressive and intolerable tax burdens was the Gabelle - the salt tax levied by the French Kings.

THE SALT MONOPOLY IN FRANCE

It helped to create unfair conditions of wretched servitude until the Revolution. For in those areas where the salt was actually produced and therefore plentiful, surveillance, transport and duties would be light and the price to the customer relatively low. But on long distance transport, substantial profits could be made by the farmers through toll charges on roads, bridges, border crossings en route or the control levy on goods entering a town All these would be reflected in the cost to the customer. 

HOW THE GABELLE WORKED

John Lock, an Englishman traveling through France in 1678 with his pupil Calb Banks, could see for himself gabelle practice in action and its effects on the local citizens. He almost certainly reported his experience back to his employer Sir John Banks in England, who was himself an adroit and shrewd executive for the East India Company and the salt tax in particular. [see ( Saltpetre)  ] In Montpellier he found the price of salt was #16.16. a minot - about 110-112 lbs. - whereas only a few leagues away on the coast at Aigues Morte it cost #0.5. Again, in the north west at Rochelle, the charge was 4-5s the boysseau and retailed at 44 or 45s because 'out of every boysseau the king has 40s duty...' To keep up these enormous price differentials the gabelle officials at the town gates in Angers were 'very strict' in questioning the travelers and frisking their baggage. Locke reports that they use  'iron bodkind about 2ft long which have a little hollow in them neare the point, which they thrust into any packs where they suspect there may be salt. 'Everyone going in or out of the town seems to have been liable to the closest scrutiny for the officers even extended their 'serch' to a little girl 'only gon out to see a funeral that was preparing without the gate.'

WHY - THE GABELLE
During the 13th century a choice of a money payment or tax instead of feudal service of arms and equipment was being offered to the nobles and bourgeoisie at the local assemblies. Normally, such 'service' was only required in war time; but this tax remained as a permanent due towards maintaining a 'professional' army. The 'aides' or indirect taxes were lifted, reimposed or increased as opportunity and necessity dictated. An extremely unpopular one on wine, wheat and salt - the Maltot, was levied in 1295 and then again a year later.

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The "SECRET SALT"  Instructions signed by Robespierre -The " Sans Culottes " with exclusive licence to enter any residence in order to collect raw salpetre for munitions  

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The sharp reaction by the greater feudal dukes to this order was to refuse the second imposition unless they could keep half the receipts. The less influential demanded one third or one quarter for their support. In 1286 the gabelle was levied temporarily as a general commodity tax. By the 15th century it had became classified as one of the main national levies and the name was only applied to salt.

THE GABELLE CONTROL
For administrative purposes and in areas where the gabelle could be enforced, the country was divided up into about 30 regions. Royalist officials assessed the tax, fixed the prices and opened warehouses to store bulk goods coming into the region and where people had to do their shopping for salt. In 1436 there were about 150 such establishments with a complement of inspectors and workmen as well as those officiating at customs posts and the limes to control salt in transit. Another irksome regulation in some areas demanded that every man, woman and any child over 8 years of age was obliged to buy a ration of salt at a price fixed by the King whether they needed it or not. John Locke, observing the ruthless harassment and harsh penalties warns the ordinary citizen of the danger of buying any salt 'but of them', for the punishment of being caught with 'but an handful ... not bought and paid for at this rate of the farmers he would be sent to the Galleys ... which meant 'almost certain death in Exile..' No wonder some cautious buyers insured themselves against becoming involved with contraband goods.

SANS CULOTTES  - TABACCO and SALPETRE munitions

Literally translated  "without breeches"  They believed in "equality" and they drove the "Revolution" however they derived their power and influence from policing the middle class. They were able to enter houses and in particular the cellars  with no further license specifically to collect any organic matter that had accumulated for the purpose of producing salpetre.  They also were licensed to inspect the premises for quantities of tobacco.   This connection between producing  controlled burning of tobacco by combining the burning of Salpetre within the framework of the munitions industrie was clearly part of a technology relevant to Robespierre's policy.

 

THE UNFAIR DISPARITY OF THE SALT TAX
Considering the essential physiological need for salt, the measures to supervise the monopoly were grossly unequal through privilege and location. Although it was originally intended to be levied uniformly; in reality it penalized the provinces remote from the salt sources where the 'grandes gabelle' was very high - about 20 times the salt value - or roughly one months' wages for the average family; in other provinces the rate was half or less and about 15% of the country was exempt through treaty or other arrangements.see  Map.

THE REAL MEANING OF THE GABELLE FOR THE ORDINARY CITIZEN
Such huge price differences, severe restrictions and the inescapable fact that some areas were free from the gabelle caused great discontent and misery to 'the poor peasants who are found to buy salt in such provinces where it is cheap, such as the country of Burgundy or the country of the Danube'... writes a sympathetic clergyman in 1708. 'There are whole families who for the want of salt, eat not soup sometimes in a whole week although it be their common nourishment. A man in that case grieved to see his wife and children in starving languishing condition, ventures to go abroad to buy salt in the provinces where it is three parts in four cheaper. If discovered, he is certainly sent to the galleys. It is a very melancholy sight to see a wife and children lament their father, whom they see laden with chains and irrevocably lost; and that for no other cause but endeavoring to procure subsistence for those to whom he gave birth.' In spite of patrols, house to house searches and harsh penalties, in the period shortly before the Revolution, about 300 men were sentenced to the galleys for smuggling salt and tobacco; another 1,800 were imprisoned and 3,700 seized for holding contraband salt.

EFFORTS TO EASE THE PRESSURE
In the 17th and 18th centuries some measures of reform and and relief were attempted by politicians, notably Colbert and Jacques Necker. Colbert divided the country into 5 areas for salt tax administration, reduced the demarcation lines and tried to equalize the duties on goods crossing the borders. And he improved the roads and waterways. The Languedoc Canal was planned and built under his patronage by Riquet, himself a gabelle tax farmer. Necker attempted some fiscal reforms which made him unpopular with the privileged classes. He also carried out a salt survey showing not only the prevailing price differentials but that per capita salt consumption was as low as 2 grams a day in some areas. But the wealthy merchants and important tax farmers failed to cooperate in making the new regulations work to mitigate the general misery. In vain protests from hard hit parishes petitioned the King in 1788 that the gabelle be annulled, that the sale of salt be made commercially marketable and 'Qu'on diminue le prix excessif du sel, et qu'il soit uniforme dans toutes les provinces.'
French Gabelle

Table Showing the results of Mr. Necker’s investigating to the salt duties in France (18th century)   [108]
Divisions of France	Number of inhabitants	Quality of quintals of salt consumed in each division	Price in each of the quintal of salt
Les Provinces de Grandes Gabelles	8300000	760000	62 livres
Les Provinces de Petites Gabelles	460000	60000	33 Livers 10 sous
Les Provinces de Salines	1960000	275000	21 Livers 10 sous
Les Provinces Redimees	4625000	830000	from 6 to 12 livers
Les Provinces Franches	4739000	830000	from 2 to 9 livers
Les Pays of Quart Boullion	585000	115000	16 livres
	24800000	3450000

N.B. A quintal of salt is equal to 100 French pounds which is equal to 112 English pounds, or 50 kg 

The gabelle was one of the principal grievances of the French peasants, the small farmers and the poorer urban people. Other countries had a salt tax as well as various tolls, dues, tithes to the church and traditional rights in kind or cash. However, in France the gabelle was especially harsh and unfairly levied. In the high tide of the French Revolution, the salt tax among others was swept away and thirty two of the gabelle farmers were executed. Nevertheless, Napoleon reimposed it to help pay for the invasion of Italy and it survived until after World War Two in 1949 when only then was it abolished. .

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