Even today in many Italian municipalities it is possible to find old tobacco shop signs which, below the large “T”, bear the inscription “Salts and Tobaccos“. But why do we talk about salt in a tobacconist’s? Simple: in the past, tobacconists sold, in addition to tobacco products, other types of products subject to state monopoly such as stamps, postcards and, of course, salt. Indeed, once upon a time, salt could be sold only in tobacconists, with the aim of controlling the price of salt in the country. To understand why, we must first spend a few words to explain the concept of “monopoly“.
The monopoly It is a type of market in which a certain product is sold by only one seller, without competition. In this specific case, the monopoly on salt was in the hands of the newly-born Italian state for many decades, starting in 1962 with law no. 720 of July 13. This law – with subsequent amendments – essentially included salt among the products under state monopoly (along with tobacco and quinine, for example), allowing the government to regulate prices and making it available for sale only at Italian tobacconists.
The choice to monopolize salt, as also reported by the Customs and Monopolies Agency, had as its aim “to regulate prices within the country, regulate the income of intermediaries and subject it to tax“.
This should not surprise us, since salt has been subject to taxes since ancient times, so much so that even Roman soldiers were paid in salt – hence the term “salary” still in use today.
But be careful, the monopoly is not in force today and it was officially abolished in 1974: for this very reason if we go to any supermarket today we can find numerous companies that sell salt under different brands.
