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Culture and history of the salt industry |
The development of the salt industry in Taiwan falls into three periods, the Ming and Ching, Japanese Colonization and Postwar periods, with focus of development evolving from daily needs through to industrial materials to the tourism, recreation industry and biotechnology. The life of people living by the seashore rises and falls following the ups and downs of the solar salt industry. Scenes and remains of the the salt industry spread all over Yuenlin, Chiayi and Tainan are the best witnesses of the trace of the salt industry development in Taiwan.
Yong-hua Chen introduced the solar salt (evaporation) method in 1665 (during the Ming and Ching dynasties in China) to replace the seawater boiling method, thus he was considered the father of solar salt in Taiwan. During the Zheng Cheng-kung Regime, the court allowed salt workers to produce and distribute salt freely and levied taxes directly from salt pan owners. The industry gradually became a government monopoly since Emperor Guangsui of the Ching Dynasty as a solution to the price fluctuation of salt and illegal salt business.
The Japanese government made Taiwan the center of salt production during the Japanese Colonization and encouraged locals to cultivate salt pans on a massive scale. After the invasion of China began, she cultivated the industrial salt marches with an output of 400000 tons a year to meet the demand.
The National Government established in 1952 the Taiwan Salt Factory as a state business to produce all the salt in Taiwan. The output of industrial sale increased as the industrialization of Taiwan began in the 1960s. Mechanization of salt yielding to replace the traditional solar salt making began during the 1970s-1980s as a result of outflow of labor from salt-making villages, the rise of the labor cost, and changes in the coastline.
Today, most industrial salt used in Taiwan is imported from Australia and other areas. The salt production at the Cigu Salt Pan of Taiwan Salt Corporation was thus shut down in 2002 and transformed into the tourism and recreation industry, marking the end of the salt industry in Taiwan. The culture of the salt industry has become a memory.
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swcoast@swcoast-nsa.gov.tw
