ABSTRACT
During my years in the Netherlands I became acquainted with one of the events that is very dear to the Dutch: Queensday. It is indeed the commemoration of the Queen’s birthday (though in fact it is the Queen Mother’s birthday), and as such it is a bank holiday. In every town and village in the country, people sell whatever they want to sell on the streets; very often they sell their old stuff. Surprisingly, in the major towns (like Amsterdam and Utrecht) people sleep in the streets the night before, on the specific (strategic) spot where they want to sell their stuff, in order to make sure that they have that specific spot for their little shop. The phenomenon is called the ‘free market’. In a city like Amsterdam this is a huge scene of chaos, or should we say a perfect self-organization that, despite the presence of millions of people in town (many people come from all over the country to Amsterdam), passes more or less smoothly. But . . .
