The Tally was conventionally, a willow stick up to eight feet long and notched to indicate the sums loaned to government, receipts and advances were normally only in very large amounts in millions of pounds. On repayment the split halves were matched together. Tallies were abolished only in 1826. Japan's Finance Ministry has announced an end to the 90 year old monopoly of the salt market in March, 1997. Suddenly, the trucks halted and the armed escort disappeared into the hills.
Shots rang out and shortly afterwards the police returned with the bodies of two Bedouin.
There was a monopoly on salt in force the sergeant explained and the men were suspected of smuggling. It was not the first such incident. Until salt was mined in quantity in comparatively recent times, its availability was subject to vagaries of climate and environment. Mines and inland salt springs being scarce and often located in hostile areas like the Dead Sea or the salt mines in the Sahara desert, they required well organised security for transport, storage and distribution. Since early times, the alkali salts have had a direct and important place in the technology of peace and war, as for example in the manufacture of leather, glass and gunpowder.