Lars Olsson Smith (12 October 1836 in Kiaby – 9 December 1913 in

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Swed ...

), also L.O. Smith, was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

spirits manufacturer and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He was called "The King of Spirits" (''Brännvinskungen'') because of his domination of spirits production in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

during the end of the 19th century. He started the production of ''Absolut Rent Brännvin'' which was later renamed

Absolut Vodka Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, in southern Sweden. Absolut is a part of the French group Pernod Ricard. Pernod Ricard bought Absolut for €5.63 billion in 2008 from the Swedish state. Absolut is one of the largest brand ...

Biography

At the age of 8, Lars Olsson Smith got a position in a general store in Karlshamn after his father's bankruptcy and was so well treated by his foster father consul Carl Smith that he took the name Smith. From 1850, he had employment in

first in the general store, then with a shipping agent. In 1858, he established an agency for a number of distilleries in

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

and

Blekinge Blekinge (, old da, Bleking) is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second ...

as well as a modern facility on

Reimersholme Reimersholme is a small island in central Stockholm, lying to the west of Södermalm and to the south of the neighbouring island Långholmen. Reimersholme is inhabited by 2,324 people, living in 1,527 dwellings, and with an average annual income ...

. The distilleries Smith installed there made him rich by producing spirits with an unusually low fusel alcohol value. The most well known was the ''tiodubblat renat'' ('ten times purified') which ran the communal distilleries out of business. As a result, the city of

tried to hamper his success. Smith however was a shrewd and resourceful businessman, placing the distillery on Reimersholme outside the city limits. He sold his products from the Fjäderholmarna islands where he had boats commuting to serve purified spirits to the people of Stockholm. In 2011, a memorial stone was erected in Kiaby, the village where Smith was born.

External links

Lo Smit
website

References

Nordisk familjebok ''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their consi ...

, Uggleupplagan (1917), Smith, Lars Olsso

1836 births 1913 deaths Swedish businesspeople Members of the Första kammaren {{Sweden-business-bio-stub