More than 5,000 years ago, China began scraping coastal saline soil, drenching it with brine and frying salt. In areas with natural brine, the production method of "burning charcoal first, splashing with salt well water and scraping salt" is adopted. At the end of the Warring States period, Sichuan began to dig wells, take brine and fry salt. Qi Guanzhong (BC? ~ 645 years ago, the policy of "official mountain and sea" was implemented, that is, salt was produced by the government and all products were transported and sold by the government.

From the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, beaches, salt wells and salt lakes were opened all over the country except for the period from the third year of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty (583) to the tenth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (722), and people were free to produce and sell them. In other dynasties, in order to increase fiscal revenue, most of them implemented monopoly system, controlled the production and sale of salt with severe punishment, and forced salt households to produce salt and producers by forming corvee.

China salt industry

Since 1950s, China's salt industry has undergone obvious changes, and its output has increased rapidly, ranking third in the world, only lower than that of the United States and the Soviet Union. 1952 produced 4.94 million tons of salt, exceeding the highest annual output in history (1943 produced 3910.8 million tons of salt). After 1979, salt industry introduced advanced technology, further developed production, and paid attention to quality improvement and variety development.

1989 produced 28.27 million tons of salt, the highest level in history; During the 40 years from 1950 to 1989, the salt production increased by 1 1.47 times, with an average annual increase of more than 6.2%. 1989 There are 27 large and medium-sized saltworks, accounting for about 60% of the national output. Great progress has been made in salt making technology. The production process of sea salt was improved, and a new process of covering the crystallization tank with plastic film was adopted.

Refer to the above? Baidu encyclopedia-salt making