The history of salt making in India does not go back quite as far as that of China, but it is ancient all the same. For thousands of years Indians evaporated seawater along the coastline, as people did on the Adriatic or on the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. But having occupied the country, the British came to change that. Colonies and territories were not merely viewed as places with rich natural resources to exploit, but, perhaps even more so, as captive markets for domestic goods. So the British banned the sale of local salt in Bengal and mandated that British salt be sold there.
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