If you look at paintings from Holland’s “Golden Age” (ca. 1560-1700) you notice the enormous number of structures built with brick. Holland was /is a country that never had large forests-which is why wooden houses were prohibitively expensive. Brick is relatively cheap (all you need is a large deposit of clay, and simple wood molds, and human labor)-and a cheap energy source to fire your kiln. Which raises the question: what kind of fuel was used? Holland has no coal (I believe), and only limited wood supplies.
So how did they make all those bricks?
With all those marshes, I bet they had some peat. Does it burn hot enough to make brick out of?
They imported massive amounts of wood from Northern Europe (and later North America) for their shipbuilding industry. I wouldn’t be surprised if they imported some of it for fuel as well. The Netherlands was probably the biggest trade hub in the world at that point-- they could import whatever they needed.
They had and used lots of peat. This article links peat harvesting to the building of their canal network and loss of farmland as the peat harvesting lowered the ground below the water level so the use of peat in the past still affects the Dutch landscape. As a side note, this website has lots of good articles.
In fact so much peat was used in those days spanish occupying forces didn’t even think to check their peat supply, thus failing to find 70! Dutch soldiers hiding in a peat ship.
That was the end of the siege of Breda, one of the dutch victory’s that announced the end of the 80 year war.(and one of the favorite stories of ditch history teachers)
It’s really cool when you think of it: what do you do when all you got is mud? You burn mud to bake mud into bricks:)
That must be a fascinating degree and subject. 
I thought it was spelled “piet”
I think they learn it from the Dike Professors…
It’s firmly entrenched in the education system.
By gully, so it is.
Enough with the subtle digs, people!
One typo and my whole post got ditched…
Thank you for unearthing the rest of the story!
Some of those Dutch ‘bricke’ have travelled far and wide since. A few were used as ballast in the old sailing ships destined for America. From there they were used to construct the walls of a Chicago warehouse. When the warehouse eventually burned down they were salvaged onto a freiight train headed for the south. They made their way to a Texas brickyard and were sawed into pavers. I bought them and mortared them onto my back yard path, with the Dutch spelling of brick worn but still plainly visible on the top face.
The young, curvy ones are built like… well, you know.
Thanks for the informative replies. Holland in its “Golden Age” was a highly affluent society. Yet, the country did decline (because its navy wasn’t strong enough to survive protracted war with England).
I always wondered how the USA would have wound up, had the Dutch kept Niew Amsterdam!
they converted solar energy onto biomass in the form of tulips. they sold the bulbs on the world market and burned the leaves and stalks to make bricks.
/tempting fate
It was called Nieuw Amsterdam.
/tempting fate