Ask HN: Reference for preindustrial chemical syntheses and their uses?

Hey guys, I was playing Cataclysm:DDA, and I noticed it let you make ammonia from salt water, a little research showed that it is possible to do this with electrolysis and a high enough temperature.

I've had a long standing dream of moving into the woods tm, and I was wondering if there's good reference material for what important chemicals existed in preindustrial society, and the ways that they were fabricated and used, and ideally even a section that shows the modern methods of synthesis in comparision. Good examples of the materials I'm trying to build up to are charcoal, roman concrete etc. I realize that it's also skills, tools and non chemical fabrication techniques that will be relevant, but I feel like reference on agriculture and wooden construction are quite readily available.

My chemistry is quite bad, but I'm willing to relearn the important bits to get a solid understanding of these methods.

I also understand that this isn't probably the best forum to ask, but I'd love to know where to go looking for this info.