Flowers are beautiful creatures that bring joy and delight. It seems that something so perfect can't be associated with anything bad. But it turns out that history knows several quite big scandals involving flowers, and one of them is tulip mania. Let's bring the story back to see how tulips became the unspoken symbol of the Netherlands!
How it started
The story of tulips becoming the top desired flower in the Netherlands began in 1562 when the citizens started to get the flower bulbs delivered from Turkey along with other goods. The tulip attracted the Dutch immediately with its unusual color and shape, and the bourgeoisie began to decorate their gardens with the new colorful flowers.
Realizing the growing love and demand for the flower, people started to make use of it: they would buy the bulbs in the fall when the prices dropped and sell them in spring when the demand would be on the rise again. Sometimes, this led to as much as doubled income, which brought more and more people to the flower business. They would invest all their money and sometimes even mortgage livestock and households in pursuit of easy earning.
The issue
However, in 1637, an auction in Haarlem stunned sellers: there were simply no people willing to buy the flower bulbs anymore. The sellers and the entire market panicked — everyone was afraid to be left with unsold goods, so they began to reduce prices at a very fast pace. This overloaded the flower market with the supply of tulip bulbs while there was no demand for the product. Today, tulip mania is often compared to the modern crisis with the debt on loans.
Today
Nowadays, the tulip crisis is often compared to the modern crisis with the debt on loans. Fortunately, the negative aspect of tulip mania is gone, and the flower is well-loved and desired again. Visit our FloralN5 store to get your mix of tulips or a composition featuring the flower delivered!
