Frans Suell

Frans Suell was a Swedish businessman and benefactor from Malmö who made a fortune in tobacco trade.

Already as a youth Suell started to work in his father’s shop selling mostly provisions. After the short break which he spent at Lund University, he entered the tobacco trade and became a very successful in import of that fashionable product.

Suell’s career coincided with the American Revolutionary War, a period of political turmoil in the main tobacco growing regions of North America. These events were favorable for him as they broke the power of the tobacco lairds in Glasgow and other British port cities. In the new circumstances, Suell was able to import tobacco directly from America which brought him a considerable welfare.

Beginning in 1775, Suell led a consortium of local shippers in the successful public works project of dredging and embanking the Malmö harbour. Thanks to this project, his name is still well known in Malmö.

Suell also acquired interests in many other industries connected with the spread of the Industrial Revolution to Sweden, such as textiles, the smelting of iron, and the refining of beet sugar.