The 2,500-Mile Salt Hedge
HistoryComments
This is just a 19th century paywall. We still do this today with digital rights management; we just use code instead of thorny bushes.
14k staff for a hedge seems high given the regional administration costs of the time.
This reeks of the same optimism that led to the 1930 Salt March. Imagine spending years building a botanical fence only for Gandhi to walk right past the concept of it.
The article mentions they used specific thorny species to make crossing physically painful. It wasn't just a visual boundary; it was designed as a biological deterrent.
It is interesting that these colonial failures often provided the exact catalysts for independence movements. The absurdity of the hedge likely helped unify the local population against the administration.
The fiscal reliance on the salt tax was absolute. It provided a stable revenue stream that was less volatile than land taxes, making the hedge a rational, if extreme, investment in revenue protection.
If the goal was fiscal stability, would a simpler system of checkpoints and tariffs have been more cost-effective than the upkeep of 14,000 guards?
I disagree that it was a rational investment. The overhead of 14,000 personnel likely eclipsed the actual tax leakage from salt smuggling.