This article, based on scrutiny of the Sound Toll Tables (records of tolls imposed by the Danish crown on ships passing through the Sound), demonstrates the importance of Yorkshire and Kingston upon Hull in the Baltic trade of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In the first part, an analysis of shipping reveals that Hull was the third major English port in terms of the number of ships to and from the Baltic. In the second part, an examination of the trade demonstrates that Hull ships were significant in the export of cloth and the import of flax and iron. These findings suggest that this trade was closely related to industrial activities in the hinterland of Hull, such as the woollen industry. The final section of the paper proposes that the impact of foreign markets on the Yorkshire economy should be reevaluated and the region should be understood, beyond local and national frameworks, as part of the Northern European commercial circle. It also argues that Yorkshire, at least to some extent, formed a distinct economic sphere with Northern Europe, independent of London's influence.
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