Scottish Tradition of Salt Wives
So that’s Where the Name Salt Wives Came From!
Well it’s been a while since the massive TV series Game of Thrones introduced us to the term Salt Wives, but it seems that in raiding cultures from around the globe to build his wonderfully bleak fantasy reality the author saw that they were real in the Scotland of yore and appropriated the expression.
Did you know that the shores of the Firth of Forth were once the scene of a gold rush, but that the ‘gold’ in this case was sea salt. Yes the good stuff the wife tells me not waste. Salt through the ages was the only sure fire preservative known to humanity and it was expensive. Of course most people know that the word salary is derived from the Latin for salt and that salt in the olden days was so valuable that soldiers in the Roman army were sometimes paid with salt instead of money. Their monthly allowance was called "salarium." So from that you also get the expression that a person is “worth his salt,” that is his wages.
Scottish salt, however, was hard won as it was boiled out of the sea water, with huge pans simmering away day and night. Salt was an incredibly valuable resource and had been since the 12th century when canny monks started the practice. But it was a tax break and cheap low quality coal mined in Fife that provided the fuel and financial incentive to make Scottish salt the leader throughout these isles and to keep the salt kettles boiling. And when the Napoleonic War closed the continent to trade the salt trade prospered mightily.
Salt Wives were the women who toiled to keep the pots simmering and evaporate the brine into salt and then deliver it to the towns and villages. These Salt Wives were reckoned to be somewhat salty in their language and were often equated to the more familiar fish wives. Strangely enough the bad language of the salt or fish husbands is never mentioned: Obviously not our modern thinking! The abolition of the tax break in 1820 meant that cheap rock salt from the continent poured in and wrecked the salt industry on the Forth. Now there are enterprises bringing back the ancient ways. There are now salt producers on the shore in Fife as well as in Skye and Ayr, but I sincerely hope they haven’t found too many difficulties with the outrageous prices industry is being forced to pay for energy.
And as we here at James Pirie are somewhat allergic to charging high prices can I recommend our Summer Sale to you with some grand bargains to be had. Take a look at the SALE - St Giles - 6 White Wine Glasses 168mm Royal Scot Crystal they’ve got an extra twenty quid off and although not perfect, perfect why not have a go!
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