A comparative note on the Sound Toll Registers, Stockholm customs accounts, and Dundee shipping lists, 1589, 1613-1622

Abstract

Abstract Since publication of the Sound Toll Registers (STR) began over fifty years ago, their accuracy has been tested by comparison with several other sets of trading records. The results have varied, but some fairly clear conclusions have emerged: (1) few ships escaped registration at the Sound except some Hanseatic ones, especially of Lübeck and Rostock, which legitimately passed through the Great Belt; (2) the accuracy of cargo registration varied according to customs liability: nationalities paying the highest dues smuggled most; and evasion was particularly common when dues were highest, as during the War of Kalmar (1611–13); (3) before the Sound customs examination was intensified in 1618, over 50 per cent of some cargoes escaped registration; after 1618, evasion was sharply reduced, sometimes to less than 10 per cent.1