A few centuries ago tulips became very popular in the Netherlands and thus Tulipomania was born , a period in which the sale of tulips skyrocketed and tulips were sold at exorbitant prices. This created a major economic bubble that gave way to a financial crisis due to growing speculation.
It is curious that this chapter in the history of the Netherlands was linked to a plant, but if we think that it is one of the great exporting countries of tulips, everything begins to make sense.
origins
Although they originate from Central Asia, most of the tulips in the world come from the Netherlands, thanks to the botanist Carolus Clusius who in 1593 introduced a selection of tulips from Constantinople to Holland to plant them in his garden. The neighbors stole some bulbs and began to plant them and thus tulips began to grow in Holland.
Today cultivating tulips has become a great national industry and an art transmitted from generation to generation, almost by natural inheritance. This, despite the fact that there are fewer and fewer producing families that have the desire and the finances to invest a lot of money in the plants.
Rise and fall of a flower
The most prosperous moment of the cultivation of tulips, and also the lowest, occurred during the 17th century and when everyone began to warn of the business around this beautiful flower. Many began to cultivate the bulbs and thus began an important sale and purchase operation that turned into a catastrophe.
At the beginning, the tulips were sold at fair prices but the strong demand made them rise to exorbitant prices like a farm, a palace or a house. An average salary at that time was 150 guilders and 6,000 guilders were paid for a tulip.
But the business could not continue like this and after many families invested their money in the cultivation of tulips , the fever ceased and that is how in 1637 tulips ceased to have that demand. Families lost everything and were left in ruin while the country suffered the consequences of such a financial bubble.
I leave you with an interesting documentary that deals precisely with this topic. If you have a while take a look at it, because it is very interesting.
