Tulip Mania - When flowers will buy houses in the Netherlands

Tulip Mania - When flowers will buy houses in the Netherlands

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In the 1600s, the world experienced one of the first major financial bubbles in Tulip's craze.

The enthusiasm of tulips took place in 17th century Netherlands, beginning around 1624 and peaking between 1636 and 1637.

While the spread of tulips is still controversial, there's no denying that the price of tulip bulbs has risen to an absurd level - with a single tulip usually worth more than one's annual salary.

So why do the Dutch people lose their minds because of tulips?

Various colors and styles of tulips, originally imported from the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), unlike anything seen by 17th-century Dutch gardeners, by color

Dutch culture quickly fell in love with tulips and the garden became a symbol of status and wealth.

Another factor that explains why the tulip boom in the Netherlands occurs is due to the tulip's own life cycle.

The root of a tulip is only a few years old and can only produce two or three clones per year.

It also takes about seven years to plant a mature tulip from seeds.

Due to these two factors, the availability of tulips is very limited, while the demand is soaring, meaning that the price of tulips is also skyrocketing due to the spike in supply and demand of tulips in the market.

How much is a Tulip bulb worth?

During the 1630s, the price of tulips increased steadily as more and more people, mostly wealthy merchants and merchants rather than members of the aristocracy or traditional investors, entered the market.

Since it was a market mainly run by independent traders rather than the nobility, trading of tulips often took place on the streets or pubs, or even at auctions, rather than on exchanges

By 1636, even the lowest quality or most ordinary tulips were worth a small fortune, with an average price of around 160 guilders, rising to 200 guilders at the peak of Tulipmania.

Although it is difficult to calculate how much that amount, on average, traders will bring home about 150 guilds each year.

During Tulip's peak, most tubers will be passed from buyer to buyer simply for profit and never grow, with some having as many as 10 different suppliers per day.

Tulipmania's most famous incident.

The most famous incident of the Tulipmanian craze occurred when seven orphans were auctioned off a property inherited from their deceased father.

The legacy is 70 tulips, including an extremely rare Violetten Admirael van Enkuizen bulb, which sells for 5,200 Guilders.

Auctions total of 53,000 guilders, all for 70 bulbs.

In 1635, 40 bulbs were sold in another auction for 100,000 guilders.

Tulip bulbs are also great for trading.

During this time, tulip bulbs were also known for buying and selling goods rather than outright.

There is a concrete example of a very rare tulip traded for four fat cows, eight fat pigs, twelve fat sheep, two fat pigs, four beers, one thousand pounds of cheese, two tons.

All of these are worth about 1,500-2,000 guilders!

There are also many cases of tulip bulbs being used to buy houses, land or farms, with one case of Semper Augustus being traded for 12 acres of farmland.

Tulips Fall ...

As all the financial bubbles grow, they also pop.

And the Tulipmania bubble burst.

It all started in Haarlem city during a regular tulip bulb auction when an investor didn't show up to pay for his tulips.

This left the market in a panic because no one seemed to buy tulip bulbs to actually obtain tulips, people simply bought them to spin around and sell them.

Over the next few days, the panic spread and the market for tulips began to collapse on their own.

Within weeks, tulips were now worth 1% less than they used to be.

Despite the tougher tulip market crash, the collapse is not too big.

Since most transactions took place on Main Street rather than on stock exchanges or among the aristocracy, the Dutch economy as a whole was not affected too much by the explosion of the tulip bubble.

Nationale Tulpendag.

Tulips are still synonymous with Dutch culture, and in the Netherlands, the third Saturday of January every year is “Nationale Tulpendag”, or National Tulip Day for English speakers.

To mark this day, Dam Square in Amsterdam is filled with around 200,000 tulips in a stunning display.

People travel from all over the Netherlands and around the world, to see it and line up so they can choose some to carry.