The Clays Around Petrus and the Tax-haven

Trip Start Oct 1994

Trip End Oct 1994

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Flag of Luxembourg Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Sunday, September 17, 2006

Preparing for the trip to Luxemburg I did not learn about tax-havens and off-shore banking but about Clay. Simple stupid clay. It is a term which describes a group of hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (phyllosilicate would mean "friendly to the silicate minerals") and one finds plenty of that around Luxembourg and many other places around the world. Its tiny particles, less than 2 ?m (microns?) big and are full of or have great affinity for water and carry a high plasticity index. Get it? That is why one travels to Luxembourg or Stoke-on-Trent for that matter. What one finds out there, well, that is quite a different a most astonishing!
Now the story of this principality making part of the awesome notion, though carefully disguised to sound most benevolent and friendly, called Benelux.

(to continue)