And this tidbit on the Mayan salt trade from Retuers today …
Ancient Mayan entrepreneurs working along the coast of what is now Belize distilled salt from seawater and paddled it to inland cities in canoes, all without government control, researchers reported on Monday.
They found evidence of 41 saltworks on a single coastal lagoon and the remains of a 1,300-year-old wooden canoe paddle.
Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the extent of trade just before the Mayan civilization in that region mysteriously fell apart.
…and this…
“To me the exciting thing is that, in addition to the paddle … these saltworks that we have found in the lagoon indicate the importance of non-state-controlled production in pre-industrial societies,” said Heather McKillop of the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University, who led the study.
To think that human beings, on their own, in an era before the invetion of the rubber stamp, the triplicate form, multi-volume regulations or tiny, windowless offices in great big buildings, and bereft of the benefit of enlightened, university-educated and ideologically guided managers could actually grow, make and trade stuff! It absolutely boggles the imagination.
I’m certain tax dollars were at work here…
3:18 pm on April 5, 2005
