The Last Chapter

We are finally done!!! Chapter 6 is finished. I found this to be a very boring chapter. It was all about countries of trade and the products that were traded. The two greatest ports were Genoa and Venice. The book says that the two ports were fierce competitors. Maybe the ports were like Moniteau and Karns City, always competing to see who was better.

Salt was very important for trade in these ports. Many of the products that were sold required salt. Parma’s famous food was ham. It was made there because the air was dry so the ham could be aged but would not rot. The Po Valley was an important dairy region. Its most important product was cheese. I had no idea that salt is used to make cheese. The salt is used to cure and age the cheese. When the author first started talking about cheese and salt I was wondering how he was going to connect them, but salt is an important part of cheese making. There were many different kinds of cheese that were made. One cheese that was made was Parmesan. I’m glad this was invented because I love to eat this on my spaghetti.

When the Mediterranean was no longer an important trade area Venice lost its importance. Genoa learned to change with the times and became leading bankers and financiers during Spain’s golden age.

I am very glad to be done with this book. I now know more than I ever thought I would about salt. Maybe this knowledge will help one of us win Jeopardy some day. Even though this book was occasionally painful to read I did learn some interesting facts. I still believe the author of this book must have been crazy to write 449 pages about salt.