But, although the salt industry is one of the oldest in the country, it has received scant treatment at the hands of authors, and this is accounted for by the fact that the trade has been conducted by a comparatively small group of men who have resisted all attempts of outsiders to participate in either their secrets or their profits. The desire for information has been consistently rebuked, and practical details relating to borings, working expenses, levels of brine, and quantities raised have been jealously concealed. It was my good fortune to be able to prosecute most of my researches on the spot, and to supplement the knowledge gained from books, pamphlets, scientific papers and periodicals, with material contained in private records and documents placed at my disposal, and information obtained by word of mouth. There is romance in every industry, and a modicum of it enters into the development of the Cheshire salt trade; but for the most part the story is a chronicle of bitter struggles to maintain a monopoly, of money thrown away, of produce sold at ruinous loss, of obsolete methods stubbornly persisted with, and of hardship and injustice callously inflicted--in a word, of the sordid determination of the salt magnates to crush competition and control prices. The methods of the Dark Ages survived both in the manufacture and the marketing of the produce, and the industry has more than once been reduced almost to ruin through the war of extermination in which for so many years the salt-men were engaged. It is not a pretty story, but it is one of unusual interest; and I have endeavoured in the telling of it to retain the interest and preserve the essential facts. ALBERT F. CALVERT. ROYSTON, ETON AVENUE, N. W. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE PREFACE iii I. THE CHEMISTRY AND PROPERTIES OF SALT 1 II. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE SALT INDUSTRY 8 III. THE CHESHIRE WICHES 32 IV. DEVELOPMENT OF BRINE PROCESSES 56 V. FORMATION AND EXTENT OF THE CHESHIRE DEPOSITS 83 VI. THE CHESHIRE SUBSIDENCES 97 VII. LATEST METHODS OF SALT-MAKING 125 VIII. THE SALT MARKET 142 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE VIEW OF THE COMMERCIAL SALT COMPANY’S BRINE RESERVOIRS AT RODE HEATH, CHESHIRE _Frontispiece_ ANCIENT SALT WORKS 13 ANCIENT SALT WORKS 19