The Sound Toll at Elsinore: Politics, Shipping and the Collection of Duties 1429–1857

Øresund, or the Sound—the body of water separating Denmark from Sweden—has always been strategically important. Between 1429 and 1857, the Danish king levied a toll on ships traveling through the Sound. The logs that Denmark kept of those tolls are a unique piece of European history and are included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register. This book uses those logs to detail the toll’s administration and history, discussing diplomatic crises, smuggling, and the threat of North American attack that hastened the toll’s demise.