Lars Olsson Smith also L.O. Smith, was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 spirits

Distilled beverage

A distilled beverage, liquor, or spirit is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables...

 manufacturer and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

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

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

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

Absolut Vodka

Absolut Vodka is a brand of vodka, produced near Åhus, Skåne, in southern Sweden. Since July 2008 the company has been owned by the French firm Pernod Ricard who bought V&S Group from the Swedish government....

.

Biography

At the age of 8, Lars Olsson Smith got a position in a general store in Karlshamn

Karlshamn

Karlshamn is a locality and the seat of Karlshamn Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden with 12,957 inhabitants of the city core and 30 918 in the municipality ....

 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 Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

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

Skania

Skania is a Cambrian fossil arthropod that may be related to the Ediacaran organism Parvancorina, and bears a strong, albeit superficial resemblance to the Vendiamorphans Vendia, Praecambridium and Onega...

 and Blekinge

Blekinge

' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea.The name "Blekinge" comes from the adjective bleke, which corresponds to the nautical term for "dead calm"....

 as well as a modern facility on Reimersholme

Reimersholme

Reimersholme is a small island in central Stockholm, lying to the west of Södermalm and to the south of the neighbouring island Långholmen. As of 2006 Reimersholme is inhabited by 2,324 people, living in 1,527 dwellings, and with an average annual income of SEK 306,500. 12 percent of the...

. The distilleries Smith installed there made him rich by producing spirits with an unusually low fusel alcohol

Fusel alcohol

Fusel alcohols, also sometimes called fusel oils, or potato oil in Europe, are higher-order alcohols formed by fermentation and present in cider, mead, beer, wine, and spirits to varying degrees....

 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 Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 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 Fjäderholm Islands where he had boats commuting to serve purified spirits to the people of Stockholm.

Smith became known as The King of Spirits.

Most importantly Smith refined spirits and until the Reimersholme factory was closed the same spirits columns were used to create the fine spirits of today.