|
Sources
The existing Historical Information System "Dutch Sound Registers"
is a component of the sub-project B 1, which deals with shipping and
trade of the towns in the Baltic region during the 18th century. The
large majority of all trade ships that entered or left the Baltic Sea
passed the Øresund, the sound between Helsingborg and Helsingør.
From the end of the 15th to the middle of the 19th century the so called
"Danish Sound Duties" were collected here. The duty registers
emanating from this tax collection can be found in the Danish National
Archive (Rigsarkivet) in Copenhagen and have been known to international
research for a long time. Already in the first half of the previous
century summaries of these sources were edited as "Sound Duty Tables"
by Ellinger Bang and others. In 1992, Hans van Koningsbrugge, an economy
historian from Groningen, discovered the so called "Dutch Sound
Registers" in the Dutch National Archive in The Hague. For a longer
period of time during the 18th century they constitute a parallel documentation
to the Danish sound duty registers. These registers were compiled by
a Dutch superintendent who followed the ship traffic through the Øresund
by order of the general states and wrote reports about this on a regular
basis. The registers indicate for the ships passing the sound in each
case date, name and origin of the skipper, port of origin and destination
as well as the primary cargo.
Databases
A cooperation project of different institutions developed
from this data in the Netherlands, with the goal to digitize the data
from selected years. Until 1998 volunteers and users put a total of
13 years (namely 1721-1723, 1731, 1741-1743, 1751-1753 and 1761-1763)
into a database. This data, which contains about 50.000 ships passing
through the sound, were put onto the internet and have been accessible
to the public since then (http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/sont). The
National Archive in The Hague has explicitly released the data for unlimited
use in our research project.
Within the project, Karsten Labahn, in his function as a student assistant,
analysed the data and put together compilations for every key year and
every Baltic Sea port. The incomplete years 1731 and 1752 were eliminated
and four chronological blocks were built (1721/23, 1741/43, 1751+1753,
1761-1763). The stated values are average values per time block.
|
|
Besides Karsten Labahn,
Gyula Pápay, Stefan Kroll and Birgitt Hellmann were involved
in the structuring of the database. The strength of the Dutch sound
registers lies in the good possibilities for comparison that they offer,
as there is over a longer period of time very consistent, and for this
reason also well comparable, information available. The disadvantages
that result from the not very detailed information are certainly of
great relevance for micro-historical examination (i.e. of the absolute
trade of a town), however, they are put into perspective by the fact
that they apply equally to all towns. A comparative macro-analysis remains
by all means useful if the limitations are named.
The Software
The programming and integration into the Historical Information System
was carried out by Gyula Pápay who also developed - in cooperation
with Stefan Kroll and Karsten Labahn - the goods category system that
was used here. It is geared to the Swedish trade statistics of the early
18th century.
The programming was carried out with the help of the programming languages
ESRI, MapObjects and Visual Basic 6.0. Questions, remarks and suggestions
can be directed at the following e-mail address: gyula.papay@philfak.uni-rostock.de.
Torsten Foy, Birgitt Hellmann and Dietrich Hinkelmann participated in
the software development particularly regarding the development of the
geometry and the program packet.
It is not allowed to distribute the software via the Internet, because
it was programmed with ESRI® MapObjects®. The program (full version)
is available on a CD-ROM that is added to the project's second conference
volume (-Städtesystem und Urbanisierung im Ostseeraum in der
Frühen Neuzeit. Wirtschaft, Baukultur und Historische Informationssysteme.
Beiträge des wissenschaftlichen Kolloquiums in Wismar vom 4. und
5. September 2003-).
A paper informing about content and possibilities for analysis
by Stefan
Kroll und Karsten Labahn to the "Dutch Sund Registers"
as source for the trade of the town in the Baltic region during the
18th century you can download (PDF document).
Section
of the interface
|
