The Toll Registers of Aschach (1691–1704)

The exchange of goods has been a fundamental feature of human culture throughout all eras. In the long centuries before the technological revolution of the railroad, land routes were mostly in poor condition and particularly unsuitable for the transport of bulk goods and heavy cargo. Where natural and political conditions permitted, maritime and inland shipping therefore played a prominent role. Technological developments corresponded with state organization: until well into the 18th century, the early modern territories of Central Europe knew no statistical records of economic data. For historians, reconstructing the flow of goods and trade cycles, consumption habits such as the integration of colonial goods like chocolate, coffee, or tea into the diet or identifying the agents of trade and transport (ship captains and merchants) poses significant challenges. The best access to studying the transportation of goods is provided by toll records (Mautprotokolle). In these account books from numerous toll stations nothing other than customs posts in pre-modern times the carriers, the goods they transported, their owners, and even the passengers were recorded. An outstanding series of toll invoices is the Protocols of the Toll at Aschach in Upper Austria, of which 194 volumes from the period 1627 to 1775 have been preserved. In Aschach, vehicles traveling on the Danube, the most important transport route in the southern German-Austrian region, were required to pay tolls. The information contained in the toll records thus enables the reconstruction of trade between the Austrian Danube regions and the adjacent areas. Connected to the transport network of the Danube and its tributaries were major trading and industrial cities such as Ulm, Augsburg, and Linz, industrial and agricultural regions like the Upper and Lower Austrian iron districts or the wine- growing areas of Lower Austria, as well as the all-important consumer center of Vienna with its imperial court and aristocratic society. Through Hall in Tyrol, the Danube region was linked to Italy, while Regensburg, in particular, handled goods from overseas and Eastern Europe. The third phase of the Danube Trade project makes the Aschach toll records from 1691 to 1704 available through a freely accessible online database. This unique Austrian source can thus be searched and scientifically analyzed for ship movements, individuals, goods, and locations for a further decade and a half beyond the period covered so far from 1706 to 1740. The extensive data from Aschach allows for the analysis of economic cycles, the actual volume of trade, as well as the people involved in trade and transport, contributing also to local and family histories.