Books registering toll revenues such as the well-known Sound Toll Registers represent primary sources for research on trade during the early modern period. For the Austrian lands, the Aschach Toll Registers preserved at the Archives of Upper Austria, Depot Harrach, are one of the most eminent sources. Up until now it has not been possible to systematically analyse this collection of 194 volumes covering the period from 1627 to 1775 as a result of its immensity and lack of indices. The chronologically ordered books contain the dates of toll passages, the names and origins of the skippers of the boats or rafts, the types and amounts of goods transported as well as their recipients or owners, and information on accompanying passengers. The available data provides detailed information on the stakeholders in transportation and goods trading on the Upper Danube, on economic relations, consumer behaviour and trade cycles in the region of southern Germany and Austria, and on migration into the kingdom of Hungary.

In 2013, the current project began processing the toll registers preserved for the period ranging from 1706 to 1740. These volumes have been fully digitized, and they are searchable in an online Database since spring 2023. The digitized books are hosted via Phaidra, the repository for the permanent secure storage of digital assets at the University of Vienna. All data of the Aschach Database are long-term archived in Arche by our cooperation partner ACDH-CH/ÖAW in TEI format. Further reading: Peter Rauscher, Die Aschacher Mautprotokolle als Quelle des Donauhandels (17./18. Jahrhundert), in: Peter Rauscher–Andrea Serles (eds.), Wiegen – Zählen – Registrieren. Handelsgeschichtliche Massenquellen und die Erforschung mitteleuropäischer Märkte (13.–18. Jahrhundert) (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Städte Mitteleuropas 25, Innsbruck–Wien–Bozen 2015) 255–306.