Dutch "Tulip" day .. 17th century flower madness or exaggerations of historical accounts?

Imran Abdullah

The Dutch capital, Amsterdam, witnessed the start of this week various events on the occasion of the "National Tulip Day", which the country celebrates in January of each year.

Thousands flocked to "Dam" Square in the city to obtain the tulip flower of various colors, as about two hundred thousand of them were distributed on this occasion, and they enjoyed taking souvenir photos at the place.

But the passion for beautiful flower is not only related to its distinctive shape and bright colors, but as a source of wealth within extensive commercial networks for centuries, and it was seen as beautiful and reflects the taste, culture, and richness as well.

Like rare paintings and precious antiques, the rich were keen to acquire flowers, which rose in price significantly according to the prevailing account.

Tulip madness
The Netherlands witnessed - in its golden age in the 17th century - a period of madness known as the "tulip mania", where the prices of beautiful flower bulbs rose to approach the price of an entire house, before it collapsed dramatically in February 1637, according to common historical accounts.

The phenomenon was linked to various social, cultural and economic factors, and the government eventually intervened and stopped trafficking in them, but not before many lost their wealth.

For centuries the "tulip mania" has been a lesson to be cited in the context of warnings of financial speculation and economic bubbles, such as the recent analogy of the digital currency with "formation", yet it was not the case according to the book of the academic author Anne Goldgar, who researched in the Dutch archive to reveal that It was "less dramatic" than it was filmed.

The "tulip bulbs" bloom in the spring to be elegant and beautiful roses symbolizing love, and these flowers moved from the lands of the Ottoman Empire four centuries ago to receive a warm welcome and great interest in cultivation in the Netherlands, which quickly adopted.

Prices have already risen in the Netherlands, because they were hard to grow, and were still new and rare. In fact, trading was relatively quiet in the Netherlands for the most part, and companies were established in different cities to care for bulbs and germination, buy, sell and sell, and committees of experts emerged to supervise them, but the exaggeration in depicting what happened overshadowed the reality of what happened, according to Anne Goldgar's book "Obsession". The Tulip: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age "(2008).

Exaggerate
The author considers that the phenomenon of "tulip mania" in the way we currently know it never occurred, and trade was confined to a fairly small community of merchants, especially within a particular religious community, and records point to a small number of bankruptcies resulting from the price collapse.

And the plague plague struck the Netherlands in 1636, that is, before the tulip prices increased and collapsed at the beginning of next year, according to the supposed novel, and when the risk of the plague (which is mainly a summer disease) began to fade, the merchants and the wealthy - who were supposed to have contributed to speculation according to the common narration - did not own Lots of money to spend on expensive tulip bulbs.

Perhaps the price was high, but it was often not exaggerated, and although some tulips were expensive, many ordinary flowers were much cheaper than the prevailing hypothesis that the author did not see correct.

The collapse was not caused by gullible people without sufficient experience entering the market as is rumored, but perhaps because of fears of oversupply and the inability to sustain the surge in prices in the first five weeks of 1637, according to the study of Ann Goldgar, professor of modern history at King's College in London.

And in this period of the beginning of the year, the tulip bulbs were not really blooming in the winter, but all were still on the ground waiting for the spring flowering period. The researcher assumes that the exchange of funds did not take place before the delivery of flowers in May or June of each year, that is, by the end of spring, and also speculates that the speculators were able to bear the loss.

The author adds that she did not notice during her study of the Dutch archive dealing with this period of severe bankruptcies and losses, and the tulip mania did not lead to "fatal financial strikes" as she put it, however the Dutch economy remained recoverable without major difficulties.

Shifts
The author says that these "myths" about tulip mania have continued because of the best-selling authors who are blamed for overly exaggerating what happened.

The author says that a widespread rumor about "tulip mania" was based on a small number of translations of satirical and propaganda writings that distorted the events of this period and its characters, and the story reminds of the seriousness of the oversimplification of events and the lack of knowledge of its more complex facts.

Historical writings on tulip mania seem to have been written with an educational or moral intent rather than the actual dating of facts, but the social and cultural changes resulting from the transformations of wealth distribution were real, and fears were then similar to modern fears.

However, the events of the "Tulip mania" are repeatedly called as a warning to investors to stay away from new speculations, but the "Tulip mania" was a historical event in a specific historical context, and whatever - according to the author - the bitcoin currency is not a new "tulip mania".