Uncovering the common past of the countries around the Baltic Sea in the years 1450-1800 
Subjects covered by the database
(Note: this is not a list of keywords on which the database can be searched; it is just meant to give an idea of the topical criteria according to which materials are included in the database.)
Shipping and maritime sectors
- trade volume
- trade routes: origins and destinations
- cargoes: composition and value
- prosopography of captains and crews
- workers organisation
- technology
- navigation and sea law
- maps
- maritime sectors: fisheries; shipbuilding; navy; harbour construction
Merchants and merchant houses
- trade networks
- organisation of firms
- foreign representatives
- family ties
- customers
- brokerage
- bookkeeping
- monetary exchange
- investments: sectors and stock markets
- risk, trust and communication
- migration, sociability, education
Transaction costs
- ship chartering
- ship protection (convoys)
- hiring of crews
- insurance (wreckage, loss)
- tolls, customs and taxes
- exchange of information
Trade regulation and diplomacy
- conditions of trade: treaties and privileges
- protective (national) measures
- toll and tax policies
- protection of property: law, state support
- facilitating policies: boards
- standardisation policies: monetary, measure, weight, quality
- diplomacy: town, estate, state; international diplomacy; diplomats as representatives
Spin-off effects
- staple organisation
- migration patterns
- piracy
- banking and monetary exchange
