Jacob Holm

Jacob Holm
Jacon Holm painted in 1834
Born	(1770-09-29)29 September 1770 Skafterup, Denmark
Died	3 August 1845(1845-08-03) (aged 74) Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality	Danish
Occupation	Industrialist, merchant, ship owner, ship builder
Awards	Grand Cross of the Dannebrog

Jacob Holm (29 September 1770 – 3 August 1845) was a Danish industrialist, ship owner and merchant. He founded the company Jacob Holm & Sønner which still exists today.

Jacob Holm was born at Skafterup in the south of Zealand in 1770 as the youngest of four brothers. He grew up in poverty with his mother, after his father, who was a school master, died when he was just four years old. After serving his apprenticeship in Næstved, he moved to Copenhagen in 1790 where he worked for one of his brothers.

In 1794, on Christmas Day, he opened a grocers store in Torvegade at Christianshavn, servicing the fast-growing population of Amager, and soon also engaged in a profitable trade with the Danish provinces. After some years in business he saw the advantages in having his own production of some of the goods he sold. In 1805 he constructed an oil mill at Christianshavn and from 1808 to 1811 acquired several smaller lots along Amager Road where he set up various manufacturies, producing glue, candles, oil, starch, powder and ship sails. In 1911, he established a rope walk which became the first industrialized production of rope in Denmark.

Already in 1798 Holm had bought his first ship, Najaden. The years after the turn of the century were hard on the shipping industry with the British bombardments of Copenhagen in 1801 and 1807 but his company survived.

He owned more than a hundred ships during the period from 1807 until his death in 1845 and for a while his shipping business was the largest in the country. In 1840, his fleet consisted of five barques, nine brigs, two schooners and two koffs. His ships brought blubber back from Greenland, which was processed in his factories, and also sailed to Danish India and the Danish West Indies.