【简译】古代西非的盐业贸易

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Salt from the Sahara Desert was one of the major trade goods of ancient West Africa where very little naturally occurring deposits of the mineral could be found. Transported via camel caravans and by boat along such rivers as the Niger and Senegal, salt found its way to trading centres like Koumbi Saleh, Niani, and Timbuktu, where it was either passed further south or exchanged for other goods such as ivory, hides, copper, iron, and cereals. The most common exchange was salt for gold dust that came from the mines of southern West Africa. Indeed, salt was such a precious commodity that it was quite literally worth its weight in gold in some parts of West Africa.

           撒哈拉大沙漠的盐是古代西非主要的贸易商品之一，在那里，人们几乎找不到自然形成的矿藏。盐通过骆驼商队和沿尼日尔河与塞内加尔河的船只，被运输到昆比萨利赫、尼亚尼和廷巴克图等贸易中心。这些贸易点会将盐输送给南方地区，或与其他货物交换，如象牙、皮革、铜、铁和谷物。最常见的交换是用盐换取来自西非南部矿区的金粉。事实上，盐在古代西非是很珍贵的货物，以至于在一些地方，它的价值堪比黄金。

撒哈拉地区的盐矿

The necessity for salt in ancient West Africa is here summarised in an extract from the UNESCO General History of Africa:

          Salt is a mineral that was in great demand particularly with the beginning of an agricultural mode of life. Hunters and food-gatherers probably obtained a large amount of their salt intake from the animals they hunted and from fresh plant food. Salt only becomes an essential additive where fresh foods are unobtainable in vey dry areas, where body perspiration is also normally excessive. It becomes extremely desirable, however, amongst societies with relatively restricted diets, as was the case with arable agriculturalists. (Vol II, 384-5)

          联合国教科文组织的《非洲通史》摘录了古代西非对盐的需求，在此作一概述：

          盐是一种矿物质，特别是随着农业生活方式的开始，盐的需求量逐渐增加。猎人和食物采集者可能从他们猎取的动物或摘取的新鲜植物中获得大量的盐份。只有在非常干燥的地区无法获得新鲜食物的情况下，盐才会成为一种必要的调味品，因为那里的人体出汗量通常也很大。然而，在饮食相对受限的社会中，盐变得很受欢迎，就像农民渴望获得土地一般。(第二卷，384-5）。

In addition, salt was always in great demand in order to better preserve dried meat and to give added taste to food. The savannah region south of the western Sahara Desert (known as the Sudan region) and the forests of southern West Africa were poor in salt. Those areas near the Atlantic coast could obtain the mineral from evaporation pans or boiling sea water, but sea salt did not travel or keep well. A third alternative was salt derived from the ashes of burnt plants like millet and palms, but again these were not so rich in sodium chloride. Consequently, for most of the Sudan region, salt had to come from the north. The inhospitable Sahara Desert was the chief natural source of rock salt, either acquired from surface deposits caused by the desiccation process such as found in old lake beds or extracted from relatively shallow mines where the salt is naturally formed into slabs. This salt, which was a creamy-grey colour, was far superior to the other sources of salt from the sea or certain plants.

          此外，为了更好地保存肉干和给食物增加口感，盐的需求量一直很大。撒哈拉沙漠西部以南的大草原地区（被称为苏丹地区）和西非南部的森林都缺乏盐。那些靠近大西洋海岸的地区可以从蒸发锅或煮沸的海水中获得这种矿物质，但海盐不容易运输或保存。第三种选择是从小米和棕榈等烧焦的植物灰烬中提取的盐，但这些盐的氯化钠含量也不是很高。因此，对于苏丹的大部分地区，盐必须从北方买进。荒凉的撒哈拉沙漠富含天然的岩盐，要么从地表沉积物中获得，如古老的湖床；要么从相对较浅的矿井中提取，那里的盐自然形成板状。这种盐是乳灰色的，远远优于来自海洋或某些植物的盐源。

When exactly salt became a trade commodity is unknown, but the exchange of salt for cereals dates back to prehistory when desert and savannah peoples each looked to gain what they could not produce themselves. On a larger scale, camel caravans were likely crossing the Sahara from at least the first centuries of the 1st millennium CE. These caravans would be run by the Berbers who acted as middle-men between the North African states and West Africa. Salt was their major trade good but they also brought luxury items like glassware, fine cloth, and manufactured goods. In addition, with these trade goods came the Islamic religion, ideas in art and architecture, and cultural practices.

          盐究竟何时成为一种贸易商品尚不清楚，但用盐换取谷物的行为可以追溯到史前时期，当时沙漠和草原民族都希望获得他们自己无法生产的东西。在更大的范围内，至少从公元一千年的头几个世纪开始，骆驼商队可能就开始穿越撒哈拉进行贸易。这些商队由柏柏尔人经营，他们在北非国家和西非之间充当中介。盐是他们的主要贸易品，但他们也带来了奢侈品，如玻璃器皿、精美的布匹和制成品。此外，随着这些贸易品的出现，伊斯兰宗教、艺术和建筑理念以及文化习俗也随之传播。

Salt, both its production and trade, would dominate West African economies throughout the 2nd millennium CE, with sources and trade centres constantly changing hands as empires rose and fell. The salt mines of Idjil in the Sahara were a famous source of the precious commodity for the Ghana Empire (6-13th century CE) and were still going strong in the 15th century CE. In the 10th century CE the Sanhaja Berbers, who controlled the salt mines at Awlil and Taghaza and transportation through trade cities like Audaghost, began to challenge the Ghana Empire's monopoly of the trade. In the 11th century CE the Awlil mines were in the hands of Takrur, but it would be the Mali Empire (1240-1645 CE), with its capital at Niani, that dominated the sub-Saharan salt trade following the collapse of the Ghana Empire. However, semi-independent river 'ports' like Timbuktu began to steal trade opportunities from the Mali kings further west. The next kingdom to dominate the region and the movement of salt was the Songhai Empire (15-16th century CE) with its great trading capital at Gao.

           盐，包括其生产和贸易，将在二千年内主导西非经济。随着各个帝国的兴衰，盐源和贸易中心不断易手。撒哈拉的Idjil盐矿是加纳帝国（公元6-13世纪）著名的岩盐来源，在公元15世纪仍在继续开采。公元10世纪，控制了阿维尔和塔加扎盐矿并通过奥达戈斯等贸易城市进行运输的桑哈贾柏柏尔人，开始挑战加纳帝国对盐的垄断。在公元11世纪，Awlil盐矿在塔克鲁尔王国手中，但在加纳帝国崩溃后，以尼亚尼为首都的马里帝国（公元1240-1645年）将主导撒哈拉以南的盐业贸易。然而，像廷巴克图这样半独立的河流“港口”开始从马里国王手中抢夺更西边的贸易权。下一个主宰该地区和盐流动的王国是桑海帝国（公元15-16世纪），其贸易中心在加奥。

Salt may have been a rarity in the savannah but at desert mining towns like Taghaza (the main Sudan source of salt up to the 16th century CE) and Taoudenni, the commodity was still so abundant slabs of rock salt were used to build homes. Naturally, such a valuable money-spinner as a salt mine attracted competition for ownership, as when the Moroccan leader Muhammad al-Mahdi attempted to muscle in on the market by arranging for several prominent Tuareg salt traders to be murdered at Taghaza in the mid-16th century CE. Quite literally, whoever controlled the salt trade also controlled the gold trade, and both were the principal economic pillars of the various empires of West Africa's history.

          在大草原上，盐是一种稀罕物，但在塔加扎（直到公元16世纪都是苏丹的主要盐源）和塔乌登尼这样的沙漠采矿城镇，盐非常丰富，岩盐的板块被人们用来建造房屋。当然，像盐矿这样有价值的摇钱树，自然会引来争夺者，如摩洛哥领导人穆罕默德·马赫迪·蒙塔扎尔（Muhammad al-Mahdi）在公元16世纪中期安排了几个著名的图阿雷格盐商在塔加扎有预谋地被谋杀，他们试图在市场上大干一场。确切地说，谁控制了盐业贸易，谁就控制了黄金贸易，两者都是西非历史上各个帝国的主要经济支柱。

The 14th-century CE Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta, who visited West Africa c. 1352 CE, gives a lengthy description of life in the salt mine settlement of Taoudenni:

It is a village with no attractions. A strange thing about it is that its houses and mosques are built of blocks of salt and roofed with camel skins. There are no trees, only sand in which there is a salt mine. They dig the ground and thick slabs are found in it, lying on each other as if they had been cut and stacked under the ground. A camel carries two slabs. The only people living there are the slaves of the Massufa, who dig for the salt. (Quoted in de Villiers, 121-122)

          公元14世纪的穆斯林旅行家伊本·白图泰（Ibn Battuta），约在公元1352年访问了西非，他对陶代尼的盐矿定居点的生活进行了长篇描述：

          这是一个没有景点的村庄。它的一个奇怪之处在于，它的房屋和清真寺是用盐块建造的，当地人用骆驼皮做屋顶。这里没有树木，只有沙子，还有一个盐矿。他们挖开地面，发现里面有厚厚的石板，相互躺在一起，就像在地底下被切割和堆放一样。商队的每只骆驼都驮着两块石板。而住在那里的唯一的人是Massufa的奴隶，他们负责挖盐。 (引自de Villiers, 121-122)

运     输

The salt slabs, relatively durable but unwieldy, were loaded onto camels, each animal carrying two blocks that weighed up to 90 kilos (200 lbs) each. A camel caravan could be composed of anywhere from 500 to several thousands of camels in their heyday. The first caravans likely crossed the western Sahara in the 3rd century CE, if not earlier, but the practice really took off from the 9th to 12th century CE. When the caravans arrived at a trading centre or major settlement in the Sudan region, the salt was exchanged for goods to carry back across the desert on the return journey; typically, such loads included gold, leather, animal skins, and ivory. The salt could be used in the communities around the trading centres or simply transported on by boat along such rivers as the Niger, the Senegal, and their tributaries. Finally, the salt was cut up into smaller pieces and porters carried it on their heads to its final destination - the villages of West Africa's interior.

          盐块相对耐用但不容易搬运，它们被装在骆驼身上，每头骆驼携带两块，每块重达90公斤（200磅）。在贸易全盛时期，一支骆驼队可以由500到几千只骆驼组成。第一批商队可能在公元3世纪（如果不是更早的话）穿越西撒哈拉，但这种做法真正兴起于公元9至12世纪。当商队到达苏丹地区的贸易中心或主要定居点时，盐用来换成货物，以便在回程时携带；通常，货物包括黄金、皮革、动物皮毛和象牙。这些盐可以在贸易中心周围的社区使用，或者干脆沿尼日尔河、塞内加尔河及其支流用船运走。最后，盐被切成小块，搬运工人将其抬到最终目的地——西非内陆的村庄。

价值连城

Salt was a highly valued commodity not only because it was unobtainable in the sub-Saharan region but because it was constantly consumed and supply never quite met the total demand. There was also the problem that such a bulky item cost more to transport in significant quantities, which only added to its high price. Consequently, salt was very often exchanged for gold dust, sometimes even pound for pound in remote areas, with merchants specialising in one of the commodities. Indeed, such was the stability of the mineral's value, in some rural areas small pieces of salt were used as a currency in trade transactions and the kings of Ghana kept stockpiles of salt alongside the gold nuggets that filled their impressive royal treasury. The passage of such a valuable item from one trader to another provided ample opportunity to increase its value the further it went from its source in the Sahara.

          盐在当时是一种价值很高的商品，不仅因为它在撒哈拉以南地区很难获得，而且因其不断被消耗，供应量从来没有完全满足总需求。还有一个问题是，这种笨重的物品在大量运输时成本较高，只会增加其价值。因此，盐经常被用来交换金粉，有时在偏远地区甚至是一磅一磅地交换，商人们专门从事其中一种商品的交易。事实上，由于这种矿物的价值非常稳定，在一些农村地区，小块的盐被用作交易的货币，加纳的国王把盐和金块一起储存起来，这些金块填满了他们令人印象深刻的皇家库房。这样一个有价值的物品从一个商人手中流转到另一个商人手中，使其在离开撒哈拉沙漠的源头越远的地方价值越高。

An anonymous Arab traveller of the 10th century CE recorded the delicate operation of bulk trading between salt and gold merchants, sometimes called 'the silent trade' where neither party actually met face to face:

           Great people of the Sudan lived in Ghana. They had traced a boundary which no one who sets out to them ever crosses. When the merchants reach this boundary, they place their wares and cloth on the ground and then depart, and so the people of the Sudan come bearing gold which they leave beside the merchandise and then depart. The owners of the merchandise then return, and if they were satisfied with what they had found, they take it. If not, they go away again, and the people of the Sudan return and add to the price until the bargain is concluded. (Quoted in Spielvogel, 229)

          一位公元10世纪的匿名阿拉伯旅行者记录了盐商与金商之间大宗交易的微妙操作，这些操作有时被称为“无声的交易”，双方实际上都没有面对面地交流：

          苏丹的人民生活在加纳。他们描画了一条边界，任何向他们出发的人都不会越过这条边界。当商人到达这条边界时，他们把商品和布放在地上，然后离开；于是苏丹人带着黄金前来，他们把黄金放在商品旁边，然后离开。商品的主人随后返回，如果他们对找到的东西感到满意，他们就拿走。如果不满意，他们又走了，苏丹人又回来，增加筹码，直到讨价还价结束。(引自Spielvogel, 229）。

Even the passage through of salt could be a lucrative source of income for rulers. For example, the Arab traveller Al-Bakri, visiting the Sudan region in 1076 CE, describes the duties on salt in the Ghana Empire which were, unlike with other goods like copper, taxed twice: "On every donkey-load of salt the King of Ghana levys one golden dinar when it is brought into his country and two dinars when it is sent out" (quoted in Fage, 670). In another example, Timbuktu operated as the middle-trader in this exchange of northern and West African resources. A 90-kilo block of salt, transported by river from Timbuktu to Djenne (aka Jenne) in the south could double its value and be worth around 450 grams of gold. As the Tarikh al-Sudan chronicle, compiled c. 1656 CE, notes:

           Jenne is one of the greatest Muslim markets, where traders carrying salt from the mines of Taghaza meet traders with the gold of Bitou…It is because of this blessed town that caravans come to Timbuktu from all points of the horizon. (Quoted in Oliver, 374)

          盐税甚至也可以成为统治者有利可图的收入来源。例如，阿拉伯旅行家阿布·阿卜杜拉·阿巴克里在公元1076年访问苏丹地区时，描述了加纳帝国的盐税。与铜等其他商品不同，当地盐税要征收两次：“每一驴子装的盐，加纳国王在运进本国时征收一个金第纳尔，运出时征收两个第纳尔”（引自Fage, 670）。在另一个例子中，廷巴克图在这种北部和西部非洲资源的交换中充当了中介市场的角色。一块90公斤的盐，从廷巴克图经河道运到南部的杰内（又名Jenne），其价值可以翻倍，大约值450克黄金。正如约在公元1656年编纂的Tarikh al-Sudan编年史所指出的：

          Jenne是最大的穆斯林市场之一，从塔加扎矿区运盐的商人在这里与携带Bitou黄金的商人相遇......正是因为这个受祝福的城镇，商队从地平线的各个方向来到廷巴克图。(引自奥利弗，374）。

Even today, the salt trade continues, although the deposits are running out and the salt merchants can no longer command gold dust in exchange. Saharan salt from Taoudenni is still transported by Tuareg camel caravans, the still-90-kilo slabs now ultimately destined for the refineries of Bamako in Mali.

          即使在今天，盐业贸易仍在继续，尽管矿藏正在耗尽，盐商也无法再以金粉作为交换。来自陶代尼的撒哈拉盐仍然由图阿雷格骆驼队运输，这些仍然是每块90公斤重的盐块现在最终被运往马里的巴马科炼油厂。

参考书目：

Curtin, P. African History. Pearson, 1995.

de Villiers, M. Timbuktu. Walker Books, 2007.

Fage, J.D. (ed). The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Hrbek, I. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. III, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1992.

Ki-Zerbo, J. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1998.

McDougall, E.A. "Salts of the Western Sahara: Myths, Mysteries, and Historical Significance." The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1990), pp. 231-257.

McDougall, E.A. "The Sahara Reconsidered: Pastoralism, Politics and Salt from the Ninth through the Twelfth Centuries." African Economic History, No. 12, Business Empires in Equatorial Africa (1983), pp. 263-286.

McEvedy, C. The Penguin Atlas of African History. Penguin Books, 1996.

Mokhtar, G. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. II, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1990.

Oliver, R. (ed). The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Oliver, R.A. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa. Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Spielvoegel, J.J. (ed). Glencoe World History. McGraw-Hill Education, 2009.

原文作者：Mark Cartwright

          驻意大利的历史作家。他的主要兴趣包括陶瓷、建筑、世界神话和发现所有文明的共同思想。他拥有政治哲学硕士学位，是《世界历史百科全书》的出版总监。

原文网址：https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1342/the-salt-trade-of-ancient-west-africa/