Complex sentence: A series of crises followed in which inland prices dropped too low for merchants to make a profit, armies on the frontier went without grain, while small mountains of salt might sit unused because officials impounded them for taxes then could not sell them.
Split into simpler sentences: A series of crises followed in which inland prices dropped too low for merchants to make a profit, armies on the frontier went without grain. Small mountains of salt might sit unused because officials impounded them for taxes then could not sell them.