Tulipomania1559 – 1636

Constantinople

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o1559: tulip bulbs sent to Counsellor Herwart in Augsburg o became popular with the wealthy in Germany and Holland o reputation and prices of tulips rose rapidly until 1636

“The rage for possessing them soon caught the middle classes of society, and merchants and shopkeepers, even of moderate means, began to vie with each other in the rarity of these flowers and the preposterous prices they paid for them.”

1 “Viceroy” bulb = 2500 Florins

o occasionally mistaken for onionso at least two accounts of people imprisoned o a sailor for eating a tulip bulb o an amateur botanist for dissecting a rare bulb worth 4000 florins

o eventually “the more prudent began to see that this… could not last forever” o realization spread, confidence fell o prices fell, never rose again o buyers began to default on contracts, refusing to pay

o tulip holders appealed to government, contracts prior to Nov 1636 were void

o purchasers after then could pay 10% o a few individuals made fortunes; many more lost everything o took economy many years to recover

SOURCE:

Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. 1841. Richard Bentley, London.

Download: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/dvi.html