For more than 400 years, the Sound Toll levied from the port of Elsinore in Denmark played an important part in Northern European politics and shipping. Its revenues were of vital significance to the Danish king and the Danish state. The customs officers at Elsinore registered all passing vessels and their cargoes into toll books which now form a large body of source material that offers a unique view into pan-European history, from the very first accounts in 1497 until the Sound Toll ceased to exist in 1857, by which time nearly two million ships had passed the Sound and paid the toll.
The articles in this book address a variety of important topics related to the Sound Toll, ranging from its introduction and first troubled years in the late Middle Ages, via its administration and custom houses throughout the centuries, to its revenues and accounts from its inception until its demise. Along the way, the articles tell of Mother Sigbrit challenging the seafaring nations around 1520; of wars and international entanglements in the sixteenth century; of the fight for access to the Baltic export so vital to the growing populations of Western Europe; of how Christian IV severely raised the toll rates, with disastrous consequences; of the Swedish attack that led to the Torstenson War of 1643–45; of the loss of Halland and eventually, in 1658–60, also of Scania and Blekinge; and of the brazen smuggling carried out by English skippers in the 1700s.
The book also describes how the free states of North America, refusing to accept any limitation to free maritime travel, threatened to send a battle fleet to force access to the Baltic Sea. This eventually forced Denmark to give up levying the toll in 1857, after nearly four centuries, although agreements were skillfully negotiated with most of the seafaring nations to compensate Denmark financially for the abolition. Finally, a review of the Sound Toll archives is provided, as well as an extensive bibliography, a glossary of relevant Danish terminology and detailed registers of personal and place names.
