Until 1820’s there was a high price paid for soda ash which could be obtained from burning kelp. However cutting, transporting and burning the huge amounts of kelp needed to produce soda ash required lots of workers.
However on the seaboard of the Highlands, landlords had a ready supply of workers as they had ‘cleared’ the crofters off their fertile lands to make way for sheep but the crofters still needed to earn money to pay for their rent.
On a more practical note, beds of kelp floating on the surface of the water at low water, make for an excellent ‘anchor’ when you want a rest on a windy day. Simply ‘drive’ your kayak up on to large bed of kelp. Don’t pull or tug the kelp stalks too hard or you might damage or rip them out.
It may indeed still be “Floating Money”.
We eat Bara Lawr (Laverbread) down here on the South Wales Coast. One of my favorite foods. I love it with fried bread, bacon and field mushrooms! Top Nosh.
It is also used now as a source of alginic acid - to stop ice cream crystallising!
Lava bread - sounds tasty. Seaweed pudding made from a fine, thin reddish seaweed was something I made in home econmics whilst growing up on the Isle of Lewis - very forgotten that taste…mingy….