Salt can be extracted either through mining or from drying pans. The Salzkammergut (in Poland?) was a salt mine of huge proportions, employing thousands.
Lueneberg, in northern Germany, was blessed with surface salt of high quality and was early an important Hansa town. Lueneberg salt was expensive and sold for the table as a spice. It was too costly for bulk use.
The herring trade therefore turned to sea salt, which could be produced in greater quantity and cheaper prices. Along the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast of France, are wide beaches and high tides. The sea comes well inland and the peasants there learned to channel the sea water into evaporation pans. Once the summer sun dried the pans, the peasants gathered the salt and sold it to great fleets of German and Flemish ships. This was a rare instance of large-scale traders dealing with the peasantry.