The Dutch Tulip Mania

As you are planning your spring garden…I know, it’s a bit early, right. Well, maybe not. While gardening is a relaxing and beautiful hobby, it does take a degree of planning and a little money. Depending on the types of plants, as well as the quantity of flowers you might choose. I suppose your location and the year might have something to do with it too. That might surprise you, but location and year did matter in 1637 in a shocking way.

It was during the Dutch Tulip Mania of 1637, that planning a garden suddenly became a very expensive venture. Tulip mania was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels. The major acceleration started in 1634 and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637. During that period, single tulip bulbs sold for prices equivalent to luxury homes, with some rare varieties commanding sums that could purchase entire Amsterdam mansions or multiple years of skilled craftsman wages. What?? Oh my goodness, that would really require some pre-planning. Or maybe it would be a good reason to forego gardening altogether!!

It was as if the people went crazy. In fact, the tulip craze in the Netherlands got so out of hand that everyday people actually mortgaged their homes, sold off family treasures, and even borrowed against future income to buy tulip bulb futures. Trading became so insane that folks swapped deeds to houses, livestock, and businesses for single bulbs of rare or striking varieties, turning flower fashion into a full-blown speculative market. It was like the stock market, but in flowers!! The people were obsessed!! I suppose that the country looked amazing as the people fought to have the best gardens with the rarest tulip varieties.

Then, as suddenly as it started, the bubble burst abruptly when it hit home that tulip bulbs had no real value beyond blooming. It was as if the people suddenly woke up. The craze left thousands of people ruined overnight. Some bulbs were so pricey they were shown off like gems at public displays, guarded by armed guards, with individual flowers worth more than most people earned in a year. The whole thing was insane, but then, these kinds of things always are. Tulip Mania went down in history as the first recorded speculative bubble, proving how hype and social pressure can drive people into wildly irrational financial decisions. The results were devastating.