Tulipomania

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Tulipomania

• What would you do for a tulip?

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Origin of the tulip

• Tulip originally mesmerized Persians and royals
  of Ottoman Empire
• Turks were first Europeans to grow and cultivate
  tulips
• Popularity spread across globe
• From Turkey throughout Europe, then overseas to
  the Americas
• No record of cultivation before 16th century

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The tulips arrival to the Netherlands

• First shipment of bulbs to Antwerp in 1562
• Tulipomania began many years later in the
  Netherlands
• Height of the phenomenon was from 1634-1637

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What is tulipomania?

• Time in mid- 17th century Netherlands when tulip
  bulbs were priced at enormous prices because of
  high demand
• The whole nation caught up in bulb trading frenzy
• People wanted to become rich overnight
• Trading in inns, taverns, other secret locations

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The craze of tulipomania

• Prices continued to rise throughout 1630s
• People consumed by greed
• Mortgaged their houses, offered food and
  livestock to get cash for trading
• Bulbs sold for hundreds or thousands of guilders
• All-time record 5200 guilders for single bulb
  about to split in two

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• Rembrandts The Night Watch only sold for
  approx. 1500 guilders just
  years earlier!

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The value of the tulip

• Four oxen or
• Twelve sheep or
• 24 tons of wheat or
• 2 hogsheads of wine or
• 2 tons of butter or
• 4 barrels of beer or
• 1000 pounds of cheese or
• A silver drinking cup or
• An oak bed or
• A ship

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Why tulips?

• Considered extremely unique and beautiful
• Different from any other flower at the time
• Colours more intense and vivid
• High competition amongst people for best tulips
• Rembrandt varieties most sought after

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The elusive Rembrandt tulip

• Plainly-hued tulips with stripes or whorls of
  white (known as breaks)
• Dutch botanists could not figure out why some
  tulips (one out of hundreds grown) were able to
  change colours
• Mystery solved two centuries later by Dorothy
  Cayley
• Breaks appeared in those tulips infected by virus

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When the tulip bubble burst

• Tulip market utterly crashed in 1637
• Initial panic when someone did not show up at
  auction to pay
• Prices dropped dramatically, people desperate to
  sell
• By April, maximum prices for bulbs were approx.
  50 guilders
• Everyone suffered huge losses

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References

• Bonar, A. 1992. Tulips a romantic history with
  a guide to cultivation. Running Press,
  Philadelphia. pp.11, 16.
• Dash, M. 1999. Tulipomania. Crown Publishers,
  NY. Back cover.
• Frankel, Mark. Business Week Online. When the
  tulip bubble burst Review of Tulipomania by
  Mike Dash. URL lthttp//www.businessweek.com/2000
  /00_17/b3678084.htmgt. Accessed 17 March 2007.
• Malak and Day, S. 2002. Tulips facts and
  folklore about the worlds most planted flower.
  Key Porter Books, Canada. pp. 35-37.
• Plant Viruses Online from VIDE Database. Tulip
  breaking potyvirus. URL lthttp//image.fs.uidaho.
  edu/vide/descr849.htmgt. Accessed 17 March 2007.
• Tolley, E. and Mead, C. 1998. Tulips. Clarkson
  Potter/ Publishers, NY. pp. 1-3.
• Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Tulip mania.
  URLlthttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_maniagt.
  Accessed 17 March 2007.