There are 195 countries in the world today but almost none of them have purple on their national flags. So what's wrong with purple? It's such a popular color today. The answer is really quite simple. Purple was just far too expensive.
The color purple has been related to royal power and wealth for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I didn't allow anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple's unique position comes from the rarity and high cost of the dye (染料) used to produce it. The dye was from a small sea snail (海螺) that was only found in the Tyre area of the Mediterranean. Over 10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of Tyrian purple; not to mention lots of work went into producing the dye, which made purple dye so expensive even for some royal families. Third century Roman Emperor Aurelio wouldn't allow his wife to buy scarves made from purple silk because it cost three times its weight in gold. A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold, which equals 56,000 dollars today. Therefore, even the richest countries couldn't spend that much having purple on their flags.
In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally created a man-made purple dye while attempting to produce an anti-malaria drug. He noticed that it could be used to dye cloth. He patented (获得专利) the dye and mass-produced it. Therefore, everybody could afford it.
Till now, a handful of new national flags have been designed and a few of them have chosen to use purple.
