homeguard

And the great thing is there's the prospect of city speculators really catching a cold if the tanker drivers keep coming out on strike. There'll be so much fuel backed up in storage, garages will stop ordering or have to drop the price. It happened to tulip bulbs, and wasn't there a South Sea Bubble that burst?
Regards,
HG

rskershaw

Still, I couldn't see a yard of ale in there.

And what's all this about me having me leg off?

davidb

the trouble the world is in right now is just down to the sheer breathtaking greed of a few right " bankers " and speculators .

rskershaw

I walk to work and back. A journey of just under 4 miles per day. The exercise spares me the cost of running a car, joining a gym and public transport fares.

I witness many unnecessary car journeys and examples of bad driving, particularly drivers either not indicating, or indicating as they turn and not behorehand. I was once hit by a van driver doing a speedy U Turn, as he wasn't using his rear view mirror!

The high cost of petrol does not seem to have changed anything.

And what's all this about me having me leg off?

earlb

I'll have to check my car manual, I don't think it works on tulip bulbs - I'll get back to you

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

homeguard

It would if you fed the bulbs through the Fischer-Tropsch process!
But just to give us all hope that there is a God - read on.

"Tulipomania" fever races through the Dutch
Tulips were originally a natural curiosity and a hobby for the extremely rich. The fascination with the tulips, its endless mutations and mystery, gave it increasing value of immense proportions.
Until 1630 the bulbs were grown and traded only between connoisseurs and scholars but more commercially minded people soon noticed the ever increasing prices being paid for certain Tulips and thought they'd found the perfect "get rich quick" scheme.
And so the popularity of the Tulip increased and more and more people became caught up in the trade. Groups of speculators were meeting regularly in the local inns to buy and sell Tulip bulbs. (The innkeepers of the time really flourished!) Since bulbs were sold by weight, most people were speculating on the future weight of the bulb once it was dug. All investors had to do was plant some bulbs and sit back on the reasonable assumption that the bulbs would grow whilst in the ground. It was like making money out of thin air and hence this speculating also became known as "the wind trade".
From the period of 1634 to 1637 bulb prices sky rocketed as 'Tulip fever' spread like wild fire amongst the normally solid and sensible Dutch. Bulbs of one or two Guilders could be worth a hundred Guilders just a few months later and bulbs would change ownership several times before they even bloomed for the first time.
The period of absurd speculation became known as "Tulipomania" (officially 1636 - 1637) and the phenomenon was so intense that it still puzzles historians and economists until this day. Such was the absurdity of the period that, at the peak of Tulipomania, a single bulb could be sold for a price which could have purchased a house in the best parts of Amsterdam! (The equivalent of 15 year's wages for the average bricklayer).
The inevitable 'crash' of Tulip prices happened in 1637 when a group of sellers could not get the prices they wanted and people everywhere suddenly came to their senses. Everyone saw that the current Tulip prices were 'artificial' and their value as elusive as the wind!
Many people lost everything they owned and for them it was a tragic ending.

Regards,
HG

TimR

The speculators play a major role, but they are not the only factor.

China is growing at more than 10% a year and has been since the early 90s. India is in the economic take-off. That plays a major role, as hundres of thousands of cars and trucks are registered in both countries.

Another reason is that the dollar is weak.

But the speculators and the weakness of the dollar are cyclical aspects that can be written off as part of a classic bubble. What we don't know is what will happen when the bubble bursts. How much of this is real commodity appreciation? The growth in China and India and also the increase in living standards in many other nations are not part of a bubble.

We just don't know. I would agree that the speculators have been responsible for a lot of this - but not all.

Steve Crook

Tulips became very important in the last year of the war as well.

After the failure of Operation Market-Garden (A Bridge Too Far), the Nazis punished the Dutch for the assistance they gave, or even were presumed to have given the Allies. No matter that the Allies ignored most of it, which was a shame because the Dutch underground tried to warn them about the two Panzer divisions refitting at Arnhem and they also told the Allies to use the local phone system when their radios didn't work.

Anyway, after everyone had withdrawn, or was captured or was in hospital, or was buried, the Dutch suffered what they refer to as The Hunger Winter.

1944/45 was an exceptionally harsh winter. From September 1944 until early 1945 the deaths of approximately 10,000 Dutch people were attributed to malnutrition as the primary cause, many more as a contributing factor. People would walk for tens of kilometers to trade valuables for food at farms. Tulip bulbs and sugarbeets were commonly consumed. Furniture and houses were dismantled to provide fuel for heating.

Audrey Hepburn spent her childhood in the Netherlands during the famine. She suffered anemia, respiratory illnesses and edema as a result, and her clinical depression later in life has been attributed to malnutrition.

Yes despite all that and despite the damage caused to their towns during operation Market Garden, they still like us

They are still grateful that we at least tried to liberate them and the way that the schoolchildren each "adopt" a grave, keep it clean and lay flowers on it is a very moving ceremony

Steve

homeguard

Until April 29th 1945 when Operation Manna began. The RAF dropped food to the Dutch, at first without an agreement with the Germans who could have shot down the bombers used to drop the food, but didn't.
Obviously they knew the end was inevitable.
I've got a miniature pair of Dutch clogs made in 1944 to celebrate the defeat of the German forces. There's a sad irony that they had to suffer a further winter of desperate privation before the actual victory. However, I did work for a company once whose MD was a South African. His family were spirited out of Holland in 1945 to avoid the consequences of their support for the Nazis. He told me that thousands had to leave in a hurry, assisted by the British at the request of Queen Wilhelmina to avoid embarrassment. She abdicated in favour of her daughter, Juliana, in 1948.
Regards,
HG

davidb

thats true but dont forget theres no actual shortage of oil .i reckon that someone somewhere along the supply chain is pushing the price up by as much as they think theyll get away with