Claes Grill

One of the notable Grill family,{{cite encyclopedia |title =Grill, släkt |trans-title=Grill, family| encyclopedia =Svenskt biografiskt lexikon | year =1967–1969 |publisher =National Archives of Sweden |location =Stockholm |language=sv |volume=17 |page=276 |url =http://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/artikel/13191 }} Claes Grill was born in Stockholm, the son of Abraham Grill and Helena Wittmack and twin brother to Anthoni Grill. Grill married his uncle Carlos' daughter, Anna Johanna Grill (1720–1778),{{efn|Daughter of Carlos Grill and Hendrica Meijtens, and granddaughter of artist Martin Mijtens the Elder.{{cite book |editor-last1=Roosval |editor-first1=Johnny |editor-last2=Lilja |editor-first2=Gösta |editor-last3=Andersson |editor-first3=Knut |title=Svenskt konstnärslexikon: tiotusen svenska konstnärers liv och verk |date=1952–1967 |publisher=Allhems Förlag |location=Malmö |page=317 |volume=2|id={{LIBRIS|8390293}}}}}} a woman famed for her beauty. They had two children, Adolf Ulric, collector and natural scientist, and a daughter named Anna Johanna 1745–1801), who donated The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.{{cite book|last1=Grill|first1=Johan Wilhelm|last2=Grillo Ankarswärd|first2=Karl|title=Conceptbok till Grillska släktens historia|trans-title=The Grill family history|url=http://grilliana.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/jw-grills-kronika1.pdf|date=1951|location=Godegård|publisher=Mårten Persson|language=sv|access-date=20 August 2014}}

Grill started to work for his father and at the age of 17 when he was employed at Abraham's office in the Grill Trading House. After the death of his father, Grill became director of the Trading House, and ran the company together with his uncle Carlos. The name of the company was changed to Carlos & Claes Grill, at that time one of the largest trading company in Sweden. After the death of Carlos (1681–1736), he was sole head of the firm until 1747, when his half-brother joined him as partner.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Grill, Klas |editor-first=Herman |editor-last=Hofberg |encyclopedia=Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon |year=1906 |publisher=Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon via Project Runeberg | url=https://runeberg.org/sbh/a0402.html |volume=1 |pages=402–403 |language=sv |location=Stockholm |access-date=20 August 2014 }} Since the family had connections to the Netherlands, Grill went there in 1731 or 1732, to further his education and gain more experience with the trading business.{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Hildebrand |first1=Bengt|last2=Högberg|first2=Staffan|title =Claes Grill| encyclopedia =Svenskt biografiskt lexikon | year =1967–1969

|publisher =National Archives of Sweden |location =Stockholm |language=sv |volume=17 |page=281 |url =http://sok.riksarkivet.se/SBL/Presentation.aspx?id=13196 |access-date=21 September 2014}}

File:Stortorget 3-5 mars 2007.JPG at Stortorget, Stockholm]]

During the mid 18th century, the Grill Trading House flourished both in Sweden and abroad. They were connected to hundreds of trading houses in Europe. Foremost was the export of goods to Hamburg, Amsterdam and England. The Dutch Grill company, Antoni Grill & Sons based in Amsterdam acted as a centre for payments to the Grill trading house in Stockholm. The Anglo-Swedish company run by Andrew & Charles Lindegren in London handled all the exports, shipping documents, vessel clearances, and insurance for the Grill Trading House. They also supplied Swedish ships with transit cargoes from England to the countries around the Mediterranean Sea.

During the second charter of the SOIC between 1746 and 1766, the Grill Trading House was one of the leading companies in the East India trade. They were partners in a large linen and rigging factory as well as a glass factory in Stockholm. They leased the Stora Stads wharf in Stockholm, owned the Terra Nova wharf and had interests in the Djurgården wharf. All three wharfs built ships for both the SOIC and foreign customers.{{sfn|Kjellberg|1975|p=131}}

The Grill Trading House also ran a banking business for Swedes traveling abroad. Since the company was connected to so many other trading houses, they could issue bills of exchange for travelers and diplomats to be redeemed at trading houses in other countries. Under the direction of Grill, the trading house acquired several factories and ironworks: Söderfors 1748, Österbybruk with the Dannemora mine (1750) and Iggesund (1753). The main exports from these factories were iron, copper, lumber and tar. Imports consisted of salt from Portugal, oak and hemp from the Baltic states, also wine, coffee, sugar, cheese, tobacco and textiles.{{cite book|last1=Müller|first1=Leos|title=The merchant houses of Stockholm, c. 1640–1800: a comparative study of early-modern entrepreneurial behaviour|date=1998|publisher=Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis|location=Uppsala|isbn=91-554-4233-1|series=Studia historica Upsaliensia, 0081-6531; 188Studia historica Upsaliensia, 0081-6531; 188|id={{LIBRIS|8359550}}}} Grill ran his companies in an old-fashioned, patriarchal way writing letters every week to his managers at the estates concerning everything from the running of the factories to making enquiries about individual employees. Overall, the Grills industrial companies employed more than 4,000 persons at that time.

File:Svindersvik 2009h.jpg

With the building of the manor in Österbybruk, it became the hub for all the iron and mining activities of the Grill Trading House, although Grill and his family did not live there permanently. They lived in the Grill house in Stockholm until 1764, when he bought the Torstensonska Palace (now known as the Arvfurstens palats) at Gustav Adolfs torg, Stockholm. The summers were spent at Svindersvik, a country residence outside Stockholm, built by Grill in the early 1740s.

Grill was an art collector and his houses were decorated with Chinese objects as well as paintings by Swedish and Dutch masters like Alexander Roslin, Gustaf Lundberg, Hans Memling and David Teniers. He owned six complete sets of porcelain tableware commissioned from Canton (now known as Guangzhou). {{As of|2014}}, the oldest and largest of these still has 325 pieces preserved. Imported porcelain broken in transit from China or by daily household use became decorative gravel used on the garden paths at one of the Grills' estates. This example of wasting money and resources was condemned by those who opposed the activities of the SOIC. Even noted botanist Carl Linnaeus was at first an opponent. He wrote: "A part of the silver, which withstands the wear and tear of time and which even fire cannot destroy, we exchange for fragile objects of clay, which, once dropped, cannot be mended."{{cite book|last1=Roth|first1=Stig|title=Chinese porcelain: imported by the Swedish East India Company|date=1965|publisher=Historiska Museet|location=Göteborg|page=24|id={{LIBRIS|1520976}}}}

Grill was interested in natural science and contributed to different projects, such as helping Carl Linnaeus financially and with the collection of plants and animal specimens from foreign lands. In 1740, he became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He gave financial support to young scientists and naturalists, lent money (without interest) to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the construction of an observatory, contributed a substantial sum of money to the Danviken Hospital and saved the Sveriges Riksbank (the central bank of Sweden) from bankruptcy in 1747 by buying banknotes at their nominal value. In 1748, he became preses or president of the Royal Academy of Sciences and was elected to the board of directors at the central bank of Sweden, a position he held until 1756.{{efn|In his speech at the Academy on 4{{nbsp}}February 1749, Grill spoke on the use of shipping. In his speech he summed up the ships owned by shipping companies in Stockholm in 1749: "Ships made of oak: 62 ships up to and including 100 lästs, 16 ships up to 200 lästs, 4 ships up to 300 lästs. Ships made of pine: 63 ships up to and including 100 lästs, 31 ships up to 200 lästs, 13 ships up to 300 lästs and 3 over 300 lästs." {{sfn|Zethelius|1956|p=96}}}} Grill was also awarded the honorary title of kommerseråd ("trade counselor") by King Adolf Frederick. In 1755, he was one of the initiating founders of the Factory Academy, a social network for factory owners in central Sweden.

Between 1748 and 1750, Grill was a member of the Bourgeoisie in the Riksdag of the Estates and politically involved with the Hats. He was also one of the partners in the infamous Växelkontoret (Exchange office), a private financial institution handling mainly promissory notes without the involvement of the central bank. When the Caps became the ruling party in 1765, Grill, along with his half-brother Johan Abraham and all the other members of the Växelkontoret, were accused of corruption and mishandling its affairs. In 1765, Grill and Johan Abraham, were fined by the Justice deputation of the Riksdag, and in 1766, they were sentenced to pay back "five barrels of gold" to the Växelkontoret. When the Hats regained their political power in the Riksdag the following year, the sentence was revoked, but by then Grill had died.

{{notelist|30em}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book

|last=Kjellberg

|first=Sven T.

|title=Svenska ostindiska compagnierna 1731–1813: kryddor, te, porslin, siden

|trans-title=The Swedish East India company 1731–1813: spice, tea, porcelain, silk

|language=sv

|edition=2

|date=1975

|publisher=Allhem

|location=Malmö

|isbn=91-7004-058-3

|id={{LIBRIS|107047}}

}}

• {{cite journal

|last1=Zethelius

|first1=Gustaf A

|title=Stockholms-varven under 1700-talet.

|trans-title=The wharfs of Stockholm during the 18th century.

|journal=Sjöhistorisk årsbok 1955–56

|date=1956

|pages=57–102

|publisher=Sjöhistoriska museet

|location=Stockholm

|id={{LIBRIS|9878825}}

|issn=0349-019X

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Ahlander

|first1=Björn

|last2=Langert

|first2=Jens

|title=Skeppsboken – livet ombord på en Ostindiefarare

|trans-title=The ship's log – life aboard an East Indiaman

|language=sv

|date=2009

|publisher=Svenska ostindiska companiet

|location=Göteborg

|isbn=978-91-633-4889-1

|id={{LIBRIS|11607831}}

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Arensberg

|first1=Ingrid

|title=Ostindiefararen Götheborg seglar igen

|trans-title=The Swedish ship Götheborg sails again

|language=sv, en

|date=2009

|publisher=Svenska ostindiska companiet

|location=Göteborg

|isbn=978-91-633-4846-4

|id={{LIBRIS|11614816}}

}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Campbell

|first1=Colin

|last2=Hallberg

|first2=Paul

|last3=Koninckx

|first3=Christian

|title=A passage to China: Colin Campbell's diary of the first Swedish East India Company expedition to Canton, 1732–33

|series=Acta Regiae Societatis scientiarum et litterarum Gothoburgensis. Humaniora, 0072-4823; 37

|date=1996

|publisher=Royal Society of Arts and Sciences (Kungl. Vetenskaps- och vitterhets-samhället)

|location=Gothenburg

|isbn=91-85252-55-7

|id={{LIBRIS|7747182}}

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Högberg

|first=Staffan

|title=Utrikeshandel och sjöfart på 1700-talet: stapelvaror i svensk export och import 1738–1808

|trans-title=Foreign trade and shipping in the 18th century: goods in Swedish export and import 1738–1808

|series=Ekonomi och samhälle, 99-0119059-2

|language=sv

|date=1969

|publisher=Bonnier

|location=Stockholm

|id={{LIBRIS|8075889}}

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Koninckx

|first=Christian

|title=The first and second charters of the Swedish East India company (1731–1766): a contribution to the maritime, economic and social history of north-western Europe in its relationships with the Far East

|date=1980

|publisher=Van Ghemmert

|location=Kortrijk

|id={{LIBRIS|218016}}

}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://libris.kb.se/hitlist.jsp?q=f%C3%B6rf%3A%28Grill%2C+Claes%2C+1705-1767%29&m=50 Publications by Claes Grill] on LIBRIS
• [http://grilliana.wordpress.com/ Website of the Grill family]
• [http://ostindiska.nordiskamuseet.se/ Godegård archive at the Nordic Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002056/http://ostindiska.nordiskamuseet.se/ |date=4 March 2016 }}
• [http://www.ub.gu.se/samlingar/handskrift/ostindie/ SOIC archive at the Gothenburg University Library]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304030207/http://www.cbg.nl/download/grill_family.pdf Grill Family from Sweden and the Netherlands and their Chinese Armorial Services]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grill, Claes}}

Category:1705 births

Category:1767 deaths

Category:18th-century Swedish businesspeople

Category:Swedish merchants

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Category:Swedish East India Company people

Category:History of foreign trade in China

Category:Businesspeople from Stockholm

Category:Members of the Riksdag of the Estates

Claes