The Real Story Behind the 17th-Century ‘Tulip Mania’ Financial Crash

https://www.history.com/news/tulip-mania-financial-crash-holland ^ | 1600's | The Netetherlands

[DallasBiff]

n 1636, according to an 1841 account by Scottish author Charles MacKay, the entirety of Dutch society went crazy over exotic tulips. As Mackay wrote in his wildly popular, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, as prices rose, people got swept up in a speculative fever, spending a year’s salary on rare bulbs in hopes of reselling them for a profit.

Mackay dubbed the phenomenon “The Tulipomania.”

[DallasBiff]

I will never understand the mania over a flower.

[C210N]

Cue up the CBDC

[chajin]

Tulips are better than one...

In manias, it is never the item itself that has value, but the musical-chairs aspect that one can make money before the music stops and everyone has to sit down.

[PAR35]

I will never understand the mania over a flower.

I never will understand the mania over hacker created "money".

[chajin]

One more thing: an aspect of the tulip mania is the secondary effects in other parts of the economy. The best known example would be Rembrandt, who makes a ton of money painting portraits of people who are making a ton of money buying/selling tulips, and then goes bankrupt when all his clients go bankrupt, losing everything he had and then losing his wife to illness. He ends up marrying his housemaid (one way to keep her employed, I guess), and it isn’t until the last few years of his life that he starts getting commissions again, and the Dutch economy begins to recover from the crash.

[ClearCase_guy]

Roses on your piano are nice.
But nothing beats Tulips on your organ.

[EEGator]

Imagine getting in heavy at $1 and selling around $65,000…
Pyramid schemes work well for some, for a while.

[dynachrome]

My beanie babies will be valuable some day, I’m telling ya!

[Flick Lives]

Interesting side-note on Rembrandt in relation to Tulip Mania.

[RedMonqey]

At least it’s a real thing.

Not like NFTs.

[Freedom4US]

Fear and greed often drive people in markets.

In the case of tulip bulbs - people knew it was nonsense. But they kept going up. And up. And up. So ... people decided they wanted to get in on the action, even though they were fully aware they weren’t truly worth the huge sums they were trading out. They didn’t want to “miss out”.

[DesertRhino]

You know what’s better than flowers on your piano? Tulips on your organ!

[GaltAdonis]

"...I will never understand the mania over a flower. "

.

A 'mania' by people over tulips - no.
But a mania by animals - I understand.

Five decades ago my mom wanted tulips in the garden southeast
of the garage. So dad planted some (a lot) for her.
The first (and only) year that they bloomed, they were beautiful!

One day my dad was out with the garden hose watering the flower garden.
While doing so, he thought he saw one of the tulip plants MOVE.
It became apparent that the plant was getting SHORTER - and sinking
into the ground - something was sucking down the tulip plant!

It was moles - burrowing under the tulips and eating them
from below - bulbs first. And eat them they did - every last one.

Dad never planted another tulip after that.

Instead of half a dozen varieties of tulips, he replaced
them with about two dozen varieties of daylilles.

Mom was happy, dad was happy - and all was well - until the local deer
decided that they liked to eat the 'Snow Blizzard' variety
of the daylillies. The ONLY variety that the deer ate -
they left all the rest alone. Weird, eh?

So my dad did not plant any more of that variety,
and there was peace and tranquility in the gardens once again.

But why they decided to name a cream colored flower 'Snow Blizzard' is a mystery to me.

.

Snow Blizzard:

[aMorePerfectUnion]

From the article…

“ only identified about 350 people who were involved in the trade, although I’m sure that number is on the low side because I didn’t look at every town,” says Goldgar. “Those people were very often connected with each other in various ways, through a profession, family or religion.”

[kvanbrunt2]

worth a read.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds

https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-Madness-Crowds/dp/1463740514

[Carriage Hill]

“It was moles - burrowing under the tulips and eating them
from below “

FYI:

Moles are Meat eaters (hence the M), and eat primarily grubs, worms and other insects in soils.

Voles are Vegetarians (hence the V), and eat roots, bulbs, rhizomes, grasses and anything not meat-related.

The *M* & *V* are easily distinguishable, in their culinary prefs, tunnels, travels, nocturnal habits etc...

Good primer on differences:

https://www.domyown.com/the-difference-between-moles-voles-and-gophers-a-779.html?keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrOq5pvDy-wIVKk1yCh215AYtEAAYASAAEgKXLPD_BwE

[GaltAdonis]

Thank you!
My parents' yard had both mole and voles - I know that.
The cat dug up both.

[Carriage Hill]

Cats are the best varmint hunters.
I had one (18lbs) at my 20ac Nursery/Garden Center/Landscape Contracting Co, who patrolled the property, killed mice, rabbits, moles and voles, small groundhogs and even chased-off larger dogs.
Cats are my favorite people.

[BipolarBob]

Watch what happens to the lottery when the payoff is very large. People pile in like crazy even though they have a better chance at getting killed in a car wreck going to buy a ticket.

[Irenic]

I could get some mania rollin’ over flowers and plants. :)