Oluf Blach (12 January 1694 – 10 July 1767) was a Danish merchant. His son continued his trading house after his death. The company changed its name to C. S. Blacks Enke & Co. in 1783.

Early life and education

Blach was born into a wealthy family of merchants in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

. His parents were merchant Mogens Jensen Blach (c. 1653–1698) and Else Olufsdatter (c. 1663–1725). He was most likely an apprentice in Abraham Kløcker's trading house where he is known to have worked for a couple of years and whose step-daughter he married in 1723.

Career

Blach was granted

citizenship Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...

as merchant on 3 November 1727. From 1729 to 1740, Blach,

Jacob Severin Jacob Sørensen Severin (27 October 1691 – 21 March 1753) was a Danish merchant who held a trade monopoly on Greenland from 1733 to 1749. Biography He was born in Sæby, Denmark, to Søren Nielsen ( 1655–1730) and his wife Birgitte O ...

and Rasmus Sternberg held a monopoly on trade on Northern Norway (then known as Finmarken). In 1763 he was appointed to managing director of the

General Trade Company The General Trade Company () was a Dano-Norwegian trading company charged with administering the realm's settlements and trade in Greenland. The company existed from 1747 to 1774 and managed the government of Greenland from 1749. History The Gener ...

(). In 1764 he was appointed to the managing board of Kurantbanken. Blach was appointed in 1746, in 1749 and ''

etatsråd was a Danish and Norwegian title, which was conferred by the king until 1909 and entailed a third-class rank in the order of precedence, and thus the right to enroll one's daughters in Gisselfeld Convent and Vemmetofte Convent. It was awarded to ...

'' in 1755. His trading company was passed on to his son Christian Schaarup Blach. For a while, it was in partnership with Niels Ryberg and later with Erich Erichsen.

Personal life

Blach married Kløcker's step-daughter Birgitte Mangor (1699 – 17 January 1778) in the

Church of Holmen The Holmen Church () is a Parish church in central Copenhagen in Denmark, on the street called Holmens Kanal. First built as an anchor forge in 1563, it was converted into a naval church by Christian IV. It is famous for having hosted the weddi ...

on 17 November 1723. She was the daughter of city councilor and city builder () Elovius Mangor (c. 1662–1714) and Johanne Herforth (1681–1756). Her mother had married Abraham Klocker in 1719.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blach, Oluf 1694 births 1767 deaths 18th-century Danish businesspeople Businesspeople from Copenhagen Danish businesspeople in shipping Danish merchants Businesspeople from Aarhus Danish shipping company founders