Tulip mania – when flowers buy a home in the Netherlands

In the 1600s, the Netherlands saw one of the first money frenzies on record - tulip mania. It started near 1624 and hit its height in 1636 - 1637, when a single bulb cost more than a craftsman earned in a year.

The Dutch loved tulips for their bright colors and unusual stripes, traits that arrived with bulbs from the Ottoman Empire. The flower turned into a badge of riches. Yet tulips multiply slowly - each plant yields only a few copies per year and needs seven seasons to bloom. Supply stayed tiny while appetite grew.

By 1636, even plain bulbs sold for 160 to 200 guilders. Rich merchants and traders did most of the buying. Deals took place in taverns, on street corners or at small auctions, not in any official exchange. Bulbs passed from hand to hand several times each day.

Seven orphaned siblings once owned seventy bulbs. Among them sat a Violetten Admirael van Enkuizen, a variety few people had ever seen. The lot sold for 53,000 guilders. A year earlier, forty bulbs brought 100,000 guilders. Traders swapped rare tulips for cows, brandy, wheels of cheese, butter, coats and whole farms. One Semper Augustus bulb traded for twelve acres of land.

The craze ended after a buyer in Haarlem refused to pay. Word spread that bulbs changed hands only for quick gain, not for gardens. Trust vanished overnight. Prices dropped to under one percent of their top value. Because most deals happened outside regular markets, the rest of the Dutch economy kept steady.

Tulips still belong to Dutch life. Each year, on the third Saturday of January, the country marks National Tulip Day. Workers lay 200,000 blooms on Amsterdam's Dam Square. Visitors from every continent come, pick a free flower and honor both the blossom and the nation that once put a price on it beyond imagination.