Tulip mania, the tulip business

A few centuries ago the tulips became very popular in the Netherlands and thus the Tulipomania, a period in which the sale of tulips climbed to the skies 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 of the history of Holland was linked to a plant But if we think that it is one of the great tulip exporting countries, everything begins to make sense.

Origins

Although they are native to Central Asia, most of the world's tulips come from the Netherlands, thanks to the botanist Carolus Clusius who in 1593 introduced a selection of tulips from Constantinople to Holland to plant in his garden. Neighbors stole some bulbs and started planting them and so tulips began to grow in Holland.

Today grow tulips It 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 producer families that have the desire and the economy to invest a lot of money in the plants.

Rise and debacle of a flower

The most prosperous time of tulip cultivation, and also the lowest, occurred during the XNUMXth century and when everyone began to warn of the business around this beautiful flower. Many began to grow the bulbs and thus began an important purchase and sale operation that turned into a catastrophe.

At the beginning, Tulips were sold at balanced prices but strong demand caused them to rise to exorbitant prices like an estate, a palace or a house. An average salary at the time was 150 florins and 6.000 florins were paid for a tulip.

But the business could not continue like this and after many families invested their money in the tulip cultivation, the fever ceased and that is how in 1637 the tulips stopped having that demand. Families lost everything and were ruined as 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.