wheat, spices, and wine. From the 14th century onward, the gabelle was limited and solely referred to the French crown's taxation of salt.

Because the gabelle affected all French citizens (for use in cooking, for preserving food, for making cheese, and for raising livestock) and propagated extreme regional disparities in salt prices, the salt tax stood as one of the most hated and grossly unequal forms of revenue generation in the country's history. The French state also monopolized the trade in salt and forced all individuals in France