Soap and Ashes
‘Bucking’, washing with a lye of ashes, painted by Jean-François Millet, 1853-4
The alkalis provided by the burning and refining of plant matter, commonly called potashes, were the key alkaline component of the early modern chemical industry, and thus a key element in the production of soap, glass, ceramics, and the processing of textiles. Their supply largely relied on a major trade through the geopolitical bottleneck of the Baltic; during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, more wood was annually converted to potash in the eastern Baltic and shipped to north-west Europe than grew in all of the British Isles and Netherlands. This research, part supported by a British Academy grant held by Paul Warde, seeks to outline the scale and chronology of this little researched trade, and the implications for ecologies and economies at each end of the commodity chain.