Page 51 - Hotel Tunnel's 100 Years of History

25, in which they also emphasized the necessity of opening the merch- andise store and selling the goods, and declared that, if the magistracy granted this request, they had appointed Stein's daughter Anna Catha- rina "to receive all goods and merchandise for sale at the set value and a reasonable profit," for which she would make a proper accounting and properly keep the funds until the disposal of the administrators.
In October, the estate's administrators, Hacks, Munter, and Suell, ex- plained to the magistrat that they would be liable for any damages and for the entire estate. Both Hacks and Munter were each given a sum of 4,000 riksdaler to cover the cost of the estate's liquidation under the conditions outlined regarding the control and sealing of the trading accounts. And the magistrat also granted the request of the foreign cre- ditors to issue a proclamation to all of the estate's domestic and foreign creditors. This was the first time that Frans Suell, the ancestor of the Suells Swedish and Danish branches, was mentioned in the records of the city of Malmo. This visit was also his first to the capital of Scania.
His encounter at this time with the young, apparently business-intere- sted Anna Catharina Stein, born in Malmo on November 25, 1694 and the eldest child in the family, who at this time was not yet 17 years old, would be decisive for his future activities and success. It is likely that Frans Suell, who found the Stein trading house to be very solid- the esta- te's assets exceeded 30,000 riksdaler - had a hand in appointing Anna Catharina as the head of the business; and it seems that the cooperation that was established between him and Anna Catharina after his return to Lübeck during the following period led to the business's continued rational management, and if not earlier, also to the engagement of the two business-minded parties. It is not known whether Suell visited Mal- mo during the following winter, but in the spring of 1712 he was there to safeguard his own and his principal's claims in Lübeck, as well as to arrange his and Anna Catharina's marriage and his future residence in Malmo. The marriage took place in the Stein home, which also became the young couple's home, on July 25, during the same time as the out- break of the plague a month earlier caused severe damage in the city; and at the same time, Frans Suell took over and continued the Stein tra- ding house's affairs in his own name. Suell's business activities, thanks to his German connections and his own outstanding trading abilities, soon became significant, despite the business-paralyzing plague that was ra- ging in the city; and during 1713, when the country was poor and deple- ted of people and money, his trade could be counted among the leading ones in the city. His success aroused envy, and since Suell conducted his "flourishing" trade without having gained citizenship in the community and while maintaining his citizenship in Lübeck, the city's merchants took advantage of these circumstances at the citizenship meeting in the
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