Tandsticksaktiebolaget

Banking houses in seven great centres of finance interchanged telephone calls, cable messages. In Manhattan, the house of Lee, Higginson & Co. knew what associated houses were doing in London, in Berlin, in Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium. At a given moment, last week, the seven groups acted together, announced a Swedish financing deal of $60,000,000.

Investors in the seven countries were invited to buy participating debentures of Kreuger & Toll Co The par value of the issue was only 45.000,000 kronor (about $11,000,000). But the market value of the debentures was six or seven times this amount. The American banking group, headed by Lee, Higginson,* offered American certificates representing debentures of 20 kronor par value at $28.14. In the first day's trading in Manhattan they rose to about $35. Lucky investors who had advance orders confirmed by the bankers realized a huge profit in a few hours.

All wise investors, buying Kreuger & Toll debentures, knew they were lending money to the Swedish match monopoly, controlling the match trade in over 40 countries.

Matchmakers. A sad-faced Swede named Johan Edvard Lundstrom had erected a match factory at his native Jonkoping ir. 1845. Starting with a small shop, he and Brother Carl Frans swiftly widened their market. In 1850 Brother Carl Frans visited England, talked business with Matchmakers Bryant & May. Thus began Sweden's export of matches.

Success at Jonkoping fired all Sweden to imitation. In Central and South Sweden every community had its local factory, fighting competition from older, stronger companies. By the end of the century, those which survived recognized the need of consolidation.

The first step came in 1903, when an Englishman named Fred Lowenadler guided the merger of six factories into the Jonkopings och Vulcans Tandstickfabriks-aktiebolag. Ten years went by before the remaining import companies were led by Ivar Kreuger into the Aktiebolaget Forenade Svenska Tandstickfabriker. These two combines functioned independently until 1917, when they agreed on a cost-saving and letter-saving merger. They became, briefly, the Svenska Tandsticksaktiebolaget. Translated literally, they became the Swedish Match Co. Ltd.

Intricately woven about the Swedish Match Co. is the organization by which it maintains and strengthens its monopoly. In 1923 it fostered the subsidiary International Match Co. to handle foreign manufacture and marketing. Swedish Match is itself controlled by Kreuger & Toll, an organizing and managing company which also owns all the common stock of the Swedish-American Investment Co.

One object of last week's debenture issue was to enable Kreuger & Toll to gather in all the outstanding ($17,917,800) preferred stock of the Swedish-American Investment Co. Another was to take over a

$36,000,000 Hungarian issue from Swedish Match.

Complex, the structure of the Swedish monopoly does not baffle knowing Swedes. At the centre of this network, holding all

J.he threads, is Matchmaker Ivar Kreuger.

Like many another international tycoon, Matchmaker Kreuger is under 50. The son of an unsuccessful matchmaker, Ivar Kreuger went to the Swedish Polytechnic Institute, became an engineer. Kreuger & Toll started business as an engineering firm. But, when Father Kreuger became involved in serious difficulties, Son Ivar left engineering and turned to matchmaking. His initial success was the 1913 merger. When his combine wedded the Jonkoping group in 1917, Matchmaker Kreuger made the match. He is managing director of Swedish Match, president of International Match, chairman of the board of Swedish-American Investment Corp., and, of course, head of all-controlling Kreuger & Toll.

Matchmaker Kreuger speaks fluently Swedish, English, French, German. He has more than a smattering of Russian and Finnish. But he would have to speak at least 50 languages and dialects if he were to conduct personally all the affairs of the International Match Co. Within the last three years, Matchmaker Kreuger has concluded shrewd deals in Poland, Peru, Greece, Norway, Germany, France, Jugoslavia, Japan, Ecuador, Esthonia. International Match Co. controls 75% of U. S. production, through the wholly owned Vulcan Match Co., and through the "biggest" Diamond Match Co. This company has a contract with the Swedish monopoly for the sale of foreign matches in the U. S. until 1930. Last year International Match consolidated its interests with Bryant & May, Ltd., biggest British-owned match company to control the market in the British Empire outside of Asia.

All the agreements were not equally easy to obtain. Matchmaker Kreuger had to dicker. To win the French state monopoly, he bought $50,000,000 French government bonds. He loaned Greece $5,000,000 for the monopoly. Ecuador received $2,000,000 and a yearly payment. A similar dicker pleased Esthonia. And such a deal was responsible for the $36,000,000 Hungarian bonds for which U. S. and foreign investors began, last week, to make indirect payment.

Moon. At the time the International Match Co. sprang into being (1923), the Swedish Match Co. announced a curious statistic. It assured the dubious that match boxes, produced in eight months at its factories, placed end to end, would reach from the earth to the moon.

Matchmaking. Chemist John Walker of Stockton-on-Tees, England, invented the first match, exactly 101 years ago. It was called a "friction light." It consisted of a wooden splint, one quarter inch in width, dipped in a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, gum and starch.* The next epoch in matchmaking was brought about by the use of phosphorus. Over-inflammable, phosphorus matches caused many a fire. Factory hands, employed in their production succumbed to an incurable disease called phossy-jaw. The dangers of these matches at length were recognized in the laws of most nations, including matchmaking Sweden.

About 1866, Inventor Alex. Lagerman invented the Universal matchmaking machine. This extraordinary device automatically cut the splints, dipped them in sulphur, affixed the tip, dried the matches, packed them in cardboard wrappers. It is still in use in Jonkoping.

*Counsel were Messrs. Ropes, Gray, Boyden & Perkins; Messrs. Carter, Ledyard & Milburn.*All these materials are still used in the head of the modern safety match.