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[[Amsterdam]], named for the Amstel river, is the largest city, and officially the capital (although the seat of government is actually in The Hague ). It is ringed by an extensive system of concentric canals.  

[[Amsterdam]], named for the Amstel river, is the largest city, and officially the capital (although the seat of government is actually in The Hague ). It is ringed by an extensive system of concentric canals.  

[[Eindhoven]] is the location of the giant electronics corporation, Philips (full name: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.), with annual revenue equivalent to about $40 billion. (The U.S. corporation [[General Electric]] has revenues of about $150 billion, but much of it is from non-electronics businesses). The Netherlands is also the home of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell, whode full name is 'Royal Dutch Shell'' or ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Shell''.  

[[Eindhoven]] is the location of the giant electronics corporation, Philips (full name: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.), with annual revenue equivalent to about $40 billion. (The U.S. corporation [[General Electric]] has revenues of about $150 billion, but much of it is from non-electronics businesses). The Netherlands is also the home of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell, whode full name is 'Royal Dutch Shell'' or ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Shell''. Other well known Dutch or partly Dutch multinationals are ''Unilever'', a compay owing many household brands, ''ING Group'', a banking group,  ''Ahold'', an international chain of supermarkets, ''Reed Elsevier'', a publishing house, ''Nielsen Company'', owner of the 'Yellow Pages'', and ''Randstad Holding'', a company providing ''human resource services''. The famous ''Dutch East India Company'', known in Dutch as ''Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie'' or VOC, who dominated trade in with South-East Asia in the 17th century, is called the first multinational in history.

The Netherlands has long been famous for its production of flowers, and also for a related economic event, the "tulip mania" of 1636-1637. A classic example of a "bubble," [[tulip]]s were traded on stock exchanges, and bid up to fantastic prices by people who understood that the prices were crazy but hoped to sell at a profit to even crazier investors. Many people mortgaged their homes for a single tulip bulb and in one case an entire brewery was exchanged for few bulbs. As with all bubbles, when bidding began to lag people tried to sell and the bubble burst with disastrous consequences.  Since then the Dutch have been renowned for their carefulness with money and have established a significant presence in the banking and financial sectors.

The Netherlands has long been famous for its production of flowers, and also for a related economic event, the "tulip mania" of 1636-1637. A classic example of a "bubble," [[tulip]]s were traded on stock exchanges, and bid up to fantastic prices by people who understood that the prices were crazy but hoped to sell at a profit to even crazier investors. Many people mortgaged their homes for a single tulip bulb and in one case an entire brewery was exchanged for few bulbs. As with all bubbles, when bidding began to lag people tried to sell and the bubble burst with disastrous consequences.  Since then the Dutch have been renowned for their carefulness with money and have established a significant presence in the banking and financial sectors.