When a tulip bulb cost as much as a house: The Tulip Mania of 1637

an old man walked the city he was resting weirdly on a cane as he walked and he was searching the city's flower beds whenever he saw a tulip he would stop raise the cane above his head bring it down in a sharp Arc and destroy the offending flower and then as if nothing happened he would simply start walking again searching the city's flower beds for tulips and destroying them wherever he found them he was destroying tulips because he was mad at them it was 1637 and the bubble had just burst on tulip Mania a period of wild speculation over the simple tulip in the Dutch Republic that had left a wake of ruined lives and fortunes it is history that deserves to be remembered the history of the cultivation of the Tulip begins in the Persian Empire most likely around the 10th Century the blossoms were usually red but occasionally would appear as white or yellow tulips are mentioned by Omar khayyam a famous person mathematician astronomeran poet he wrote what thou it is fair to view this form of man I know not why the heavily Artisan has set these tulip cheeks in Cyprus forms to Deck the mournful Halls of Earth's divan historical records for the Tulip are difficult to locate as the father may have been mistakenly identified or labeled by botanist unfamiliar with it part of the flower's charm was how quickly it could mutate or change color similar to Apples tulips have inherent variability which means that they don't necessarily appear like their parent flower a tulip plant can be grown from either seeds or buds but a seed forms a flowering bulb after seven to twelve years citizen can take several years for the new plants with their unique colors to show there's the potential for a delightful surprise a botanist wrote in 1597 about the Tulip nature seems to play more with this flower than with any other that I do know this ability to change some believed showed the flower was blessed by the attention of God tulips bloom in April and May in the Northern Hemisphere and then from June to September the plant is dormant and Bulbs can safely be uprooted and moved so purchases at first occurred during these months the trade was tied to a natural schedule the Tulips we have today may not look like the Tulips grown in Persia turkey and later the Dutch Republic for example tulips with long paddles were favored by early Ottoman botanists and artists artists when drawing the ideal flower of the period do tulips that resemble daggers more than these softly cut flowers that are seen today in fact this idea was impossible to maintain as the closer the pedals came to each other the less pollinators could assist the tulip in propagation perhaps this is why the extremely long petal tulip is not common today the Tulip is believed to have been introduced to the Western World by an ambassador from the Habsburg Empire to the Constantinople Court of Suleiman the Magnificent in the early 1500s Ozark designed to busbek shipped a container of the bulb's home where it ignited the imaginations of the planted buyers who saw it partially fueled by plant discoveries in the new world botany was undergoing a type of Renaissance at the time plants were being experimented with by physicians in order to determine what if any healing properties they may have possessed monarchs and other wealthy Nobles planted vast Gardens seeking not just useful but also beautiful and novel plants for their properties the Tulip was a perfect fit for the age despite the fact that no practical use for the flower could be found attempts were made to develop a tulip into a delicacy to be eaten but it didn't catch on some Innovative Physicians ground up and boiled the Tulip touting it as a cure for gas or uncomfortable bowels but that also failed the Tulip has little to no scent and some believe that the proved the flower to be moderate and chased moral virtual's highly prized by the Calvinists Catholics and other Christians of the era careless clucius a physician and director of the Imperial Botanical Garden of Vienna took some of the tulip bulbs with him when he relocated to the University of Leiden in the Dutch Republic s planted the plants in his new garden and became possessive of the Tulips he grew noting fascinating mutations some of these colorful mutations were labeled broken by botanist broken tulips are also called bazaars at the tarimer when the solid color of the petal is crossed by lines or streaks of white or yellow causing a beautiful change from a single color flower Lucius and his contemporaries had no idea what caused a mutation but were fascinated both by its beauty and seeming randomness the moderate flower that was now something of a gamble as the broken tulips were more difficult to offset which increased the demand and value for them scientists now know that a virus spread by the peach potato aphid is primarily responsible for the stunning variations seen in tulips Beech trees were a common fruit tree found in The Gardens of the time and the contamination probably happened within the gardens themselves since they didn't know what caused the mutations gardeners tried to artificially coax the flowers to Break by using plaster from walls or pigeon dung as fertilizer others attempted to put pigmentation directly into the soil playing with the plants do the color up into their stems and then into the petals when these methods didn't work the gardeners would approach the fortunate owner of the mutated tulips and ask for cuttings from them sell us your flowers name the price and we'll pay it hobby botanist big clucius he declined it would not be moved by any amount of money he knew he would most likely not be able to replicate his extraordinary collection undeterred the governor's gardeners organized a night raid into clucius Gardens and stole the best ones they could find after the theft Lucius according to contemporary historians lost courage and the desire to continue their cultivation however he continued his correspondence with botany enthusiasts throughout the world and is credited with being the father of all the beautiful gardens in the Dutch Republic the thieves lost no time spreading the Bounty throughout the Republic the stolen flowers of glucius began something of a tulip Renaissance in the obsession with broken and rare tulips continued the most valued flower of the era is still said to be the semper Augustus a red and white stripe beauty that displayed its color both inside and outside the Blossom from the base to the tip of the petal the semper Augustus which no longer exists today wasn't even viewed by that many enthusiasts at the time because almost all the examples of the flower are owned by one person historians disagree on who that person was but some say it was Dr Adrian Powell a director of the East India Company a botanist from the period Sun example of the semper Augustus in Powell's Garden in 1624 and afterwards he wrote never did a florist see one more beautiful than this like Lucius before him Powell refused to sell the flowers some collectors offered 13 000 florins so the cost of a home for the rare find The increased demand for the rare and beautiful tulips caused their prices to Skyrocket some collectors were selling their businesses to buy the flowers a groom was said to have accepted a single tulip as a dowry for his bride everyone from the butcher to the baker was getting into the trade a burglar was said to have sold his tools to purchase tulips tulips were big business when the demand outpaced production tulip bulb transactions were changed from exchanges for money for bulbs to promissory notes or a promise for deliverables in the future now historians say the wind handle or win trade began in Earnest as the trade was no longer tied to the Natural dormant season for tulips curious trading practices began in response to the demand for tulips a florist and a potential buyer would meet in the back room of a Tavern where they would select impartial judges the florist and buyer would write the price that they were willing to sell and buy the flower Forum boards that would be passed to the judges the two judges or proxies would consider the numbers on both boards and write down a number somewhere in between that they considered Fair then the boards were passed back to the florist in potential buyer it both accepted the price then the deal was done if only one person accepted the price then the florist paid a fine to the judges which acted as a small incentive to close the deal when the buyer paid for the flowers a small amount called wine money went to the judges the wine money went to the tavern to keep the drinks and transactions flowing some bulbs are said to be bought and sold up to 10 times in one day it was a party-like atmosphere with Incredible amounts of money Changing Hands until February 2nd 1637 a forest in the city of Harlem went to the taverns and offered up his bulbs for sale reportedly at 1 250 gilders no one wanted the deal he lowered it and the result was the same and again no takers everyone in the room realized tulip Mania was over word quickly spread and forced across the Republic were left with worthless bulbs his turns have argued about whether tulip Mania was an actual bubble or simply result of other pressures of the market for example in February of 1637 The Guild of Dutch Flores lobbied the parliament to change the rules regulated into the contracts to buy bulbs making the contracts more favorable to the buyer Economist Earl Thompson believed this is why the prices of tulips ran way up buyers are speculating that the rule change would make them even more money they see spying when they realized that it wasn't true whatever the causes of tulip Mania the biggest push against the phenomena was by religious groups who believe the rise and fall of the flower showed the populations underlying greed and desire for money pamphlets appeared with titles like the fall of the great Garden and scenes from the remarkable year 1637 when one fool hatched another the idol Rich lost their wealth and the wise lost their senses these circulated through the cities once centers of tulipmania now an old man walked down the street and crushed the worth of tulips with his Cane despite its volatile Beginnings the Tulip is still intimately connected with Holland which is sometimes called the flower shop of the world each year there are tulip festivals held All Around the World in places where Dutch settlers made their homes maintaining that intimate connection between the Dutch and the flower whose fortunes Rose and fell in so short a period of time and begotten those economic economic considerations there's actually right now a search for the mythical black tulip the idea of the black tulip was credited to Alexander Dumas who in 1850 wrote a novel called the black tulip which creates a human drama in which a person is to be awarded a prize if they can grow the perfect black tulip and with the plant's natural variability we are coming closer and closer to that today two of so dark purple that they appear to be black some Growers claim that the perfect black tulip is essentially the Holy Grail of tulip cultivation and if someone were to grow one you wonder what the bulb would be worth and whether it was parka new tulip Mania I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short Snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that Thumbs Up Button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on Facebook Instagram Twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 105,469

Keywords: history, the history guy, tulip, dutch republic, botany, holland, tulip mania

Id: EreCgy4ECpA

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2019