Sound Dues
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The Sound Dues (or Sound Tolls; Danish: Øresundstolden) were a toll on the use of the Øresund, or "Sound" strait separating the modern day borders of Denmark and Sweden. The tolls constituted up to two thirds of Denmark's state income in the 16th and 17th centuries. The dues were introduced by King Eric of Pomerania in 1429 and remained in effect until the Copenhagen Convention of 1857 (with the sole exception of Swedish ships between 1660 and 1712). Tolls in the Great Belt had been collected by the Danish Crown at least a century prior to the establishment of the dues by Eric of Pomerania.[1]
History
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. In 1567, the toll was changed into a 1–2% tax on the cargo value, providing three times more revenue. To keep the captains from understating the value of the cargo on which the tax was computed, the right to purchase the cargo at the stated value was reserved.
In order to avoid ships simply taking a different route, tolls were also collected at the two other Danish straits, the Great Belt and the Little Belt; sometimes non-Danish vessels were forbidden to use any other waterways but the Øresund, and transgressing vessels were confiscated or sunk.
The Sound Dues remained the most important source of income for the Danish Crown for several centuries, thus making Danish kings relatively independent of Denmark's
In 1658, Denmark-Norway had to cede her provinces east of the sound (
Copenhagen Convention
The Copenhagen Convention,[2] which came into force on 14 March 1857,[3] abolished the dues and all Danish straits were made international waterways free to all commercial shipping.[4]
See also
- Skibsklarerergaarden
- Sound Toll Registers Online (STR) : http://dietrich.soundtoll.nl/public/
References
- )
- ^ "British and foreign state papers. V.47 (1856-1857)".
- ^ "Legal provision: maritime law". UNESCO.
- ^ Law of the Sea Institute (1983). The Law of the Sea in the 1980s. University of Virginia: Law of the Sea Institute. pp. 600–619.
Literature
- (in Danish) Degn, Ole. Tolden i Sundet: Toldopkrævning, politik og skibsfart i Øresund 1429-1857. København: Told- og Skattehistorisk Selskab, 2010. ISBN 978-87-87796-37-8.
- Degn, Ole (Editor). The Sound Toll at Elsinore: Politics, Shipping and the Collection of Duties 1429-1857. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press and The Danish Society for Customs and Tax History, 2017. ISBN 978 87-635 4470 2.