Now, something I like besides salt is money (because it buys more salt, duh), so the notion that these two things would be related (more than as far as supermarket transactions go) peaked my interest.
By around 550 BC, receiving salt from someone was synonymous with being in that person's service (as far as I know, receiving clothes did not release you from said service). Salt production was often the sole privilege of monarchies or the ruling elite (Occupy Salt Street, anyone?). For example in The Book of Ezra (Ezra 4:14, English Standard Version), the servants of King Artaxerxes I describe their loyalty thus: "Now because we eat the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to witness the king’s dishonor, therefore we send and inform the king..."
The Latin salarium bore connection to Roman soldiers, salt, and employment. As good old Pliny the Elder wrote, in his Naturalis Historia XXXI: "[I]n Rome. . .the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word salary derives from it..."
Some suggest that the word "soldier" is derived from the Latin sal dare (to give salt), but a more common theory suggests that the word "soldier" comes from the gold solodius (a type of coin) with which Roman soldiers were paid. This payment may have been an allowance for the purchase of salt or perhaps compensation for soldiers conquering salt supplies or guarding the Salt Roads leading to Rome.
