Sonttol registers Online transferred to Huygens ING
Friday January 31, 2020, the data from the Soundtoll Registers were transferred to Huygens ING. The symbolic transfer took place at the symposium ‘Ten years Sonttolregisters Online’.
The symposium marks the completion of the Soundtoll Registers Online project and at the same time the transfer of the data to Huygens ING, which will keep the database and associated information up and running in the coming years. This way access is guaranteed for everyone. The result of ten years of hard work can be consulted on the website www.soundtoll.nl, which contains all data from the 1.8 million passages that are registered in the Sound Toll Registers.
The Sound Toll Registers are the administration of the toll that the King of Denmark charged from 1497 to 1857 on the ships passing through the Sound, the sea route between Sweden and Denmark, which connects the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The Sound Toll was located in Helsingør at the place where the Sont is the narrowest. All ships that sailed to and from the Baltic Sea had to anchor here. The skippers then went ashore to pay the toll.
The Sound Toll Registers are a famous and widely used source for historians to study the history of economics and trade in Europe. Partly because of the length of the series, they are a valuable source for the economic history of the whole of Europe. All flows of goods by sea between the Baltic Sea region and the rest of Europe can be mapped with these registers.
The Sound Toll Registers Online project is an initiative of Tresoar and the University of Groningen.
