All through history, availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization. In Britain, the suffix "-wich" in a placename means it was once a source of salt, as in Sandwich and Norwich.
We get the word salary from salt too
"The Old English ending -wic ... means farm, as in Keswick (cheese farm), or Goswick (goose farm) ... but it might denote a periodic, opportunistic beach market ... for example Lundenwic (London), Gypeswic (Ipswitch) and so on."