*Carl Fredrik Liljevalch Jr.'s left at the time of his death total assets of approximately 250 million in today's monetary value. (1) When the heirs received theirs and all donations were distributed, there was still about SEK 1.5 million left, namely close to SEK 62 million in today's money value. In his will, Carl Fredrik Jr. gives the probate officers a free hand to dispose of the surplus. The financial resources for the construction of liljevalch's art gallery came from this "leftover" money. (2)
*Regarding Carl Fredrik Jr.'s date of birth, there are two different tasks: According to the paintings (Tåhlin, Ivetorp), Carl Fredrik Jr was born on 29 Jul 1837, but in the book Saltskog gård by Göran Gelotte in 2001, the date of birth is stated to be 31 July 1837. (3)
*Carl Fredrik Liljewalch, born 1796-07-11 in Lund, Malmöhus County, died 1870-06-24 Stockholm. Father:Samuel Lilliewalch. Mother: I:2 Sophia Maria Sylwan.
Children with Margareta de la Rose:
Carl Fredrik Liljewalch, born 1826-02-17, died 1833
Hilda Margaretha Liljewalch. born 1826-12-13, no indication of the year of death.
Lorenz Liljewalch, born 1830-09-30, died 1830-12
Francis Laura Liljewalch , born 1834, died 1841
Nina Helena Liljewalch (1835-07-24 - 1892-07)
Carl Fredrik Liljewalch, born 1837-07-29, died 1909-04-24
Emil Theodor Liljewalch, born 1837-07-29, died 1850
Thomas (Tom) Decimus Liljewalch, born 1840-09-07, died 1904-02-16
Francise Laura Wilhelmina Lijewalch, born 1845-08-25, no record of the year of death.
Eduard (Edward) Olof Liljewalch, born 1833-01-31, died 1915-08-20
Please note that the Liljevalch family has spelled its surname in several different ways throughout the ages. (4)
*Carl Fredrik senior (1796–1870), was born in Lund but moved to Stockholm at the age of sixteen and made a remarkable career. His business consisted mainly of wood processing, shipping, exports of wood products and imports of coal. ¨
During the misgovernment years in upper Norrland, the need was alleviated by Carl Fredrik senior's grain deliveries and he was therefore called "Norrland's benefactor". He also started industrial activities in this poor part of Sweden. A large ant farm project on Gotland finally drove him into bankruptcy in 1864, a year after his wife Margareta's death.
Liljevalch senior was a fearless entrepreneur and the stake always consisted of personal assets, which resulted in such large profits and as severe losses. With a finely calibrated sense of business, impressive negotiating skills and a deep commitment to everything he undertook, he managed to develop a range of profitable projects on a large scale. He was undoubtedly an important personality in pre-industrial Sweden.
Carl Fredrik senior was born in Lund but came to Stockholm as a 16-year-old and was employed as a clerk at the city's largest grocer wholesaler. The following year, he was sent to St. Petersburg by the company to recover a claim. In Russia, the young Swede was imprisoned but released and received an audience with the Russian Tsar Alexander.
Back in Stockholm, Carl Fredrik senior soon opened his own wholesale business, erecting a steam saw and a wood processing factory at Tegelviken, more specifically next door to Stora varvet which was located in the place where the Viking terminal now is located.
Part of the production consisted of veneers exported to England and the USA on Liljevalch's own vessels. The contact between Carl Fredrik Liljevalch and England developed and through return loads he became Sweden's largest importer of English coal in the 1830s.
In 1832, following an English example, he opened a food establishment without alcohol service for his sailors and workers at Tegelviken. This attracted the interest of the sobriety activist Crown Prince Oskar, later Oscar the First.
King Charles XIV was also interested in Carl Fredrik senior's far-sighted activities and hired him as an advisor for many years. The talks focused on the great distress in Norrland caused by years of malformation. The government's grain aid to the people of the north cost enormous sums and Liljevalchs took over the relief activities in return for being granted permission to exploit the largest asset on land, namely the forest.
Said and done, Carl Fredrik senior bought sawmills, where sometimes Baggböle outside Umeå1834, built factories for wood processing, built shipyards in almost every port of shipment along the Norrland coast and shipped timber to Asia and Australia.
On behalf of the newly elected king, Oskar I, he also went to the East Indies to establish a trade agreement that allowed foreign ships to load and unload in China. He also managed to lay the foundations for Swedish and Norwegian trade consulates in the Chinese port cities.
Carl Fredrik senior's last really big project was the involvement of gotland myrodlingsbolaget, whose activities focused on depleting the island's large marshes and making them arable. In 1864, Liljevalchs went bankrupt and left Gotland for good. In his final years, he lived with his son Carl Fredrik Jr. before he died on June 24, 1870. (5)
*Between 1824 and 1852, the Liljevalchs family lived at Tjärhovsgatan 89, now Folkungagatan 141. The house was built in 1748 and still stands today. (6)
*The Liljevalchs family lived at Slottsterassen and Mellangatan 29 during their stays in Visby. Edward Liljevalch moved in adulthood between different addresses along Strandgatan but in 1862 bought the large medieval property on Strandgatan 5. (7)
*The Liljevalch family probably ended up on the men's side in 1927 with the death of Eduard Carl Fredrik Liljevalch. It had its roots in Småland and can be traced back to Måns Mattson Lilljevalk, owner of Wallersta farm near Värnamo, probably born in 1636. During the 17th century there were some of liljevalchsklanen's bourgeoisie in Eksjö, between 1668 and 1840 its academics lived in Skåne and at the beginning of the 19th century the business branch of the family – to which Carl Fredrik Jr belonged – spread to Gotland and Stockholm.
Carl Fredrik Jr.'s uncle Olof (1795–1862) emigrated via the United States to the newly formed state of Chile in 1819 for employment in a U.S. trade office. The Chilean family branch is now called Page and Murillo respectively and has in turn partly moved on to the UNITED States and California. (8)
*In addition to Carl Fredrik Junior, there were two other brothers who came to prominent positions in society, namely Edward (1833–1915) and Thomas (1840–1904). With studies and entrepreneurship on Gotland in their luggage, they moved to Stockholm and came to have influence in business, finance and the capital's politics.
In 1870, they formed the two salvage and diving company Neptune. The company became one of the leading salvage companies in the world with many international assignments. The operations were managed from Edward and Thomas' joint office in Stockholm, at Slottsbacken 8 and later Skeppsbron 34.
In 1940, neptune company was part of the Broström Group and its core business remained until the shipbuilding and shipping crisis of 1984 when it was decommissioned. One of the most high-profile salvage operations carried out in our time is the lifting of the regal ship Vasa.
Edward was for a long time a member of the Stockholm City Council with responsibility for the city's finances and real estate transactions, a position that corresponds to today's Municipal Board Chairman.
Thomas was appointed board member of the Riksbank in 1893 and in the same year as a member of the Stockholm City Council. He was also a member of several company boards and CEO of Oskarshamns Verkstads- &Skeppsdockas AB.
Of course, one might ask whether Thomas and Edwards' private economic interests could be reconciled with their political mission to work for the common good. But sources say the two brothers were extremely careful not to let one affect the other. Edward seemed so mild to the public good that he was described as "troublesome, with hard fists and a desire to rule." (9)
*Due to this unwillingness to highlight itself, not much material is preserved, nor published, about the Liljevalch family and its activities. This is perhaps somewhat surprising given their influence on Swedish industrialization and successful entrepreneurship.
*His father Carl Fredrik senior and Lars Johan Hierta (1801–1872) were business associates and their paths crossed regularly in the capital's pre-industrial areas tegelviken and Barnängen, where they both ran movements.
Hierta established Liljeholmen's stearin factory in 1839 and its silk weaving mill in 1846 in the area, and Carl Fredrik senior had his successful sawmill and wood processing factory. The two men also had common business interests on Gotland, including in Myrodlingsbolaget. Hierta also showed interest in the activities of sons Edwards and Thomas and became one of the major shareholders in the company Neptune. (10)
*Under the leadership of Carl Fredrik Jr., Bergvik &Ala became the first in the world to produce white wood-free paper according to an improved production method. (11)
* The orb mills were bought by Thomson, Bonar &Co, Carl Fredrik Jr was placed as CEO and a dormant mining industry was brought to life thanks to new processing methods. (12)
*The transport of iron ore took place at this time on a number of different railway routes, each with its own management, which made handling difficult. The ore was taken from Grängesberg via Frövi – ludvikabanan to Vanneboda, which entered örebro-köping's railway towards Valskog and on over Eskilstuna and Flen to Oxelösund's port for transport by sea. (13)
*One of the British financiers, Sir Ernest Cassel (1852-1921) came to form a kind of radar pair with Carl Fredrik Jr.
He made major investments around the world, including funding the first Assuan Dam in Egypt as well as mines and railways in South And North America as well as the first underground building in London. Cassel invested – with the help of Liljevalch Jr – money in Sweden, thereby, among other things, taking the initiative for Grängesberg's Grufvebolag and Grängesberg's joint mining management, running a merger of the small mines in the area, financing most of the Swedish Railway Company (Swedish Central Railway Association) and buying into the smaller railways in Bergslagen.
This was the start of TGOJ (TransportAktiebolaget Grängesberg Oxelösunds Railways). Cassel's business concept was based on a combined company ownership in order to be able to take care of all stages of production. (14)
*C.F.Liljevalch Jr. donated large sums to Uppsala University, the Stockholm School of Economics and the Scholarship Fund at present-day Stockholm University. The C.F. Liljevalchs j's scholarship fund still awards scholarships for study trips intended for students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Science at Stockholm University. (15)
