TulipomaniaThe Great Dutch Tulip-Trading

Craze of 1634-37Mike Dash

Alkmaar, 5 February 1637

To Alkmaar, in the North Quarter of HollandTo an auction of the estate of a tavern-keeper, Wouter Winkel, for the benefit of his seven childrenFierce bidding raised 90,000 guildersThe goods sold: flower bulbs

Stranger from the eastWild tulips from the Celestial Mountains

Natural barriersThe unfinished article

Symbols of spring, life and fertilityBrought west by Turkish nomads, c9th-10th Venerated in Persia by 1050

‘When a young man gives one to his mistress, he gives her to understand, by the general color of

the flower, that he is on fire with her beauty; and by the black base of it, that his heart is burnt to a

coal.’John Chardin

‘Acceptable and beautiful’

The OttomansA holy flowerDepicted in the Garden of EdenOne of five precious flowersAn imperial symbolThe Abode of BlissParadise gardens and professional gardenersIstanbul tulips

1500 varietiesA council of florists to sit in judgment on new cultivars

‘Acceptable and beautiful’

‘The Light of Paradise’‘The Matchless Pearl’‘Increaser of Pleasure’

‘Rose of the Dawn’‘Diamond’s Envy’

‘Pomegranate Lance’‘Delicate Coquette’

‘Acceptable and beautiful’

‘Curved as the form of the new moon, her color is well apportioned, clean,

well-proportioned; almond in shape, needle-like, ornamented

with pleasant rays, her inner leaves as a well, as they should be, her

outer leaves a little open, as they should be, the white ornamented leaves are absolutely perfect. She

is the chosen of the chosen.’

Seyh Mehmed Lalezari, Acceptable and Beautiful

Clusius From Turkey to EuropeTrade goods and giftsAugsberg, 1559

Antwerp 1562Vienna 1572Frankfurt 1593France 1598

Seen in Mechelen by Carolus Clusius, 1565

TheftTravels to Vienna 1573Receives tulip seeds from imperial ambassador to the Ottoman courtTo Leiden 1592 to establish a hortus academicus

Thefts from the garden in 1596, 1598‘And so the 17 provinces were amply stocked.’

VarietiesThe most diverse of all flowers known to Clusius14 different speciesMore than 30 varieties known by 1602Divided into three broad groups

VarietiesRosen

Most numerousCrimson flakes or flames on a white petalThe more delicate the red, the finer and more coveted the flower – from ‘rude’ all the way to ‘superbly fine’Existed in about 400 varieties by 1635

VarietiesVioletten

Purple or lilac on whiteLess common than rosen tulips; about 70 varietiesAlso existed as lacken - white on a lilac background

VarietiesBizarden

Red on a yellow backgroundLeast common and least coveted of the three groupsAbout 24 varietiesCould also be purple or brown on yellow

Smoke and mirrorsCoveted and collected by the wealthiest regents and merchants

Netherlands the world’s first developed economyA fast-growing society of refugeesRich trades, banking, the Amsterdam stock exchange… even a futures market

– Yet a flat, drab country with a Calvinist aversion to displays of ostentation and wealth in clothing or personal possessions

– Tulips one of God’s creations… fitted into fashion for country houses and the beautification of the countryside with gardens

Smoke and mirrors• Planted

formally• So scarce and

expensive, often one flower per bed

• Optical illusions used to multiply the number of flowers on display

Semper Augustus

• Chronicle of Nicholas Wassenaer

• Only 12 examples known by 1624

• Single owner• Offers of 2,000 to

3,000 guilders per bulb were summarily rejected

• Valued at up to 12,000 guilders a bulb by 1636

Why tulips?

• New• Rare

– and slow to propagate

• Hardy and suited to sandy soil

• Process of breaking unpredictable, & weakens flower

• More intensely colored & better defined than any other flower before or since

Florists• By 1630, a small but well-

established market for tulips

• Connoisseurs and growers• Large sums paid for the

rarest flowers• Easy money?• Dutch society and Dutch

character

Boom• 1633. A house in Hoorn

sold for three rare tulips; a farm in Friesland for a parcel of bulbs

• Stories drew in new investors– often artisans mortgaging the

tools of their trades

• Bulbs still scarce; rapid acceleration in prices, and more varieties began to be traded

Boom• Admirael de Man

– From 15 guilders to 175• Root en Gheel van Leyden

– From 45 guilders to 550• Generalissimo

– From 95 guilders to 900• This acceleration

continued through 1635 until, by the winter of 1636, some bulbs could double in value in little more than a week.

At the Sign of the Golden Grape

• To understand this means understanding the way the trade was conducted.

• Not an elite trade - at the margins of Dutch economic life

• Traders were artisans, trading in tavern ‘colleges’

• By auction, but with wijnkoopsgeld (wine money)

At the Sign of the Golden Grape

• And increasingly unreal– Florists did not value

tulips for their beauty– Had no intention of

growing them themselves

– So wanted to trade all year round, not as previously during the lifting season

– In all parties’ interests to maximize volume and profit - so system of trade by weight evolved

– And a futures market– Windhandel

At the Sign of the Golden Grape

• The futures trade– 10% deposit down,

balance payable at lifting time

– Sell the promissory note - no risk

– Take the example of goudas at 100 guilders a bulb…

– A man with 50 guilders capital could buy 5 bulbs

– If by lifting time price had doubled he was worth 1,000 guilders

– But if they halved, he lost 200 guilders…

At the Sign of the Golden Grape

• Perhaps 3,000 or 4,000 traders involved across a dozen towns

• Bricklayers, farmers, woodcutters, coffee-grinders, glass-blowers, millers

• Weavers mortgaged tools

• Payment often in kind• And as prices rose

steadily, tulip trading became a national obsession

From the notarial records of Wouter de Jonge (1635)

Value for moneyA flower worth 3000

guilders could be exchanged for

o 8 fat pigs & 4 fat oxeno 12 fat sheep

o 24 tons of wheat & 48 tons of rye

o 2 hogsheads of wineo 4 barrels of beer

o 2 tons of butter & 1,000 pounds of cheese

o A silver drinking cupo A pack of clothes

o A bed with mattress & beddingo A ship

Bust• By winter of 1636-37 the

market was fast reaching saturation– Growing concern at the

approach of lifting time – Chaotic chains of

ownership– Doubts about

identification of bulbs– All bulbs, even gemeene

goed for which there was no actual demand, in play

– Prices had become so high few could now afford to enter market, limiting amounts of new capital

Bust• The crash came in Haarlem

on the first Tuesday of February 1637

• 1250 guilders asked for a basked of witte croonen or switsers

• No bidders at 1250 guilders• No bidders at 1100 guilders• No bidders at 1000 guilders• Panic• And a simple impulse: sell

Condemnation• Panic spread from Haarlem

to Amsterdam and the other tulip towns

• Trade all but ceased - prices now 5%, sometimes 1%, of their peak

• A tulip worth 5,000 guilders sold for 50

• Leaving tangled chains of ownership and debt

• Those worst off: the growers

Condemnation• An assembly of growers meets

at Amsterdam• Compromise: purchases to 30

November to be paid in full• Purchases thereafter settled

with payment of 10% of agreed price

• Disillusionment and condemnation - a flood of ribald and moralistic broadsides

Legal process• Compromise fails; appeals to

the States• The States refers the matter

to the Court of Holland• The Court refers the matter to

the towns• All disputes suspended

pending a resolution• Few cases ever were resolved• In Haarlem, an arbitration

committee of ‘friend-makers’ from January 1638

The bubble burst• Cases heard into 1639• The painter Jan Van Goyen, pursued

by his creditors, then his creditors’ heirs, dies in 1656 still owing 897 guilders from his involvement with the tulip trade

• Market returns to equilibrium in 1640s with a few connoisseurs dealing direct with the remaining growers for the most superbly fine bulbs

• A few large deals still made - Aert Huybertsz pays 850 guilders for a Manassier, summer 1637

• By 1643, prices average 1/6th of those of February 1637

Lessons not learned

• A mania for hyacinths in 1737• In dahlias in France in 1838• In red spider lilies in China in 1985• Dutch domination of the bulb trade continues• Istanbul tulips and the tulips of Golden Age Holland become extinct; mosaic virus identified and isolated• Today the oldest variety dates only to 1650s