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 The Tulip Crash of 1637
The Puritans were quick to oppose the pernicious collecting mania and the craving for foolish speculation of these "florists" or "blommists", as they were known. Nevertheless, the "tulip disease" continued to spread. This craziness reached its zenith in the years 1634 to 1637, in the period known as "The Foolish Tulip Trade", "The Wild Tulip Speculation", or "Tulipomania".
This period is often compared to the modern day Stock Market Craze worldwide of the 1920s — and it is easy to see why. Buying and selling tulips became not just a hobby for the very rich, but an activity for all kinds of craftsmen as well. By the 1620s tulips were being sold by the bulb, but in 1634, people switched over to selling rare varieties by weight. It's not so surprising that people chose the grain (weighing four point eight centigrams) as the unit of measure. This was the same unit of measure used by goldsmiths.
Although the story is not really clear - there appear to have been tulips that were sold for up to 3,000 guilders per bulb.
A notarized bill of sale was issued for many of these transactions. It is also certain that some tulips that were traded never even existed. This could happen because people could only supply actual bulbs during the period from July through November, when they were out of the ground. During the rest of the year, except for the flowering period, the plant was below the soil surface. Therefore the Dutch term "windhandel," meaning "wind trading" was an apt term. |
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 Obviously many cartoonists of this period created funny drawings ridiculing those involved in the Wind Trade, which today seems a folly not unlike that depicted in Hans Christian Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes."
One very famous cartoon was entitled "Flora's Mallewagen." This engraving, dating from 1637, was jam-packed with the faces of people of the day who had parted with fortunes in exchange for tulip bulbs. There is also an interesting painting by Jan Breughel, an artist who lived from 1601 to 1678, which depicts monkeys engaged in the day-to-day activity of tulip traders. Here too the feasting and tippling habits of the "florists" was denounced, with monkeys shown acting like, well, asses. Another example was an engraving by Pieter Nolpe who depicted the tulip speculation as a giant fool's cap.
In 1637 the tulip trading crashed. People who thought of themselves as extremely rich were reduced to poverty overnight.
In spite of the uproar and the difficulties that accompanied the wild speculation in tulips, the tulip continued to be the most popular garden flower for a very long time. Tulips had become associated with the Netherlands. The lasting Dutch fascination with tulips — and enduring Dutch flower industry — owes at least part of its development to Tulipomania. |
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