There have been many great transitions in history, some of which we will cover in the following chapters, but this moment, in which our early ancestors corralled their friends and family together to work to produce something not for their own consumption but to trade or sell to others, stands as an important watershed. That salt was the product in question might sound peculiar to the modern reader, who probably takes this staple product for granted, cheap and ubiquitous as it is. But it was not always so; until relatively recently making salt was very hard work indeed.
