The Sound Toll Registers are accounts of the dues (Deens: Øresundstold, Zweeds: Öresundstullen) which the Kings of Denmark levied on the shipping through the Sound, the strait between modern-day Denmark and Sweden. The registers from 1497 have been preserved. The registers have some gaps in the first decades, but from 1574 on the series is almost complete until 1857, when the toll was abolished.
All foreign ships passing through the strait, whether en route to or from Denmark or not, had to stop in Helsingør and pay a toll to the Danish Crown. If a ship refused to stop, cannons in both Helsingør and Helsingborg could open fire and sink it. A "ship handler" handled the paperwork at Øresund Custom House for captains in connection with Denmark's collection of Sound Dues from all ships that passed through the Øresund.
The Sound Toll Registers contain data of 1.8 million passages. Of each passage, the officials of the toll booth at Elsinore usually recorded the following data:
- date of passage
- name and domicile of the shipmaster
- port of departure
- port of destination (from the mid-1660s)
- composition of the cargo
- amount of toll
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