Paul Toll

Paul Sequens Esaias Toll (September 7, 1882 in Småland – July 3, 1946) was a Swedish construction engineer and co-founder, together with Ivar Kreuger, of the construction company Kreuger & Toll.

Paul Toll was born in the parish of Berga in Kronoberg County, Småland. The name Toll springs from the small village Tollstad, south of Alvestra in the province of Östergötland, Sweden. In 1913, he married Gunhild Engwall, with whom he raised six children.

Together with Ivar Kreuger, Paul Toll formed the engineering and construction company Kreuger & Toll in 1908. Toll played the main role in the construction projects while Ivar Kreuger handled the business contacts and marketing of the company. When he met Ivar Kreuger in early 1908, Ivar offered him the position of joint owner in a newly established company. Paul wrote a letter to his father Karl Toll on 23 March 1908 to give him some information about Ivar and probably to ask his father for advice on what to do, as Paul Toll was working for another company at that time: (translated to English), "After a 7-year period working as a trainee in America, engineer Kreuger, that is his name, has worked with a lot projects with concrete steel in different places around the world. He has now made me an offer to become his joint owner." This was the starting point for one of the world's most famous companies, not in the construction business but as a holding company mainly in the match industry with the name Kreuger & Toll AB that did not include the construction business.

After some years Ivar Kreuger became more focused in founding large corporations. To start with in the match-industry to save the Kreuger family match factories around Kalmar that was facing financial problems in 1912 and later in other industries. In 1917 Ivar founded the company Kreuger & Toll Construction AB, run and owned (60%) by Paul Toll. Ivar owned a small part of that company, how much is not known. Kreuger & Toll AB then became a holding company, run by Ivar Kreuger. Paul and Ivar, however kept a close contact over the years as Ivar insisted on keeping Paul as a member of the board for Kreuger & Toll AB, handling the Kreugers construction business within the subsidiary real estate company Hufvudstaden AB. The construction business grow rapidly both within and outside Sweden.

The construction company mainly worked in Scandinavia but also had a small company in Russia, registered in 1911, with Ludvig Nobel as a member of the board and the office in Sankt Petersburg. Ivar Kreuger was behind the economic work to set up the company and Paul handled the construction work. An industrial building for ASEA was set up in the city of Jaroslav north east of Moscow with a number of other buildings. However the Russian business came to a sudden stop in 1916 due to internal company problems just before the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917 when all subsidiaries whose main company was outside Russia were forbidden to have any activities in Russia, and all foreign property was confiscated.

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