Question

For most of human history, salt was a rare and valuable commodity that had to be either mined or extracted from the ocean through evaporation. This changed when modern chemistry allowed humans to produce it in factories. How did this development affect the market for salt?

Answer 1

The advancements in the chemistry allowed to produce the salt effectively.

As a result, the salt was easily manufactured in the factories. Earlier, the salt was extracted from oceans, which was a time taking and very difficult process. Due to easiness in the manufacturing of the salt, the availability of the salt was increased. The increase in availability of the salt made by factories, allowed more supply of the salt in the market and the prices of the salts were drop down to a significant level.