Tulip Bubble
Can one bag of tulip bulbs buy you an entire street in the center of Amsterdam? Not today, but 400 years ago you actually could.
One of the best national symbols of the Netherlands is the tulip. Thousands of people all over the world visit the Keukenhof every year, just to see (and smell) them in real life. Our tulip is one of the biggest export products and make us a lot of money.
But at a certain time in history the tulip made even more money than it does today. One tulip bulb was literally worth more than GOLD!!!
What many people don't know is that the tulip is originally coming from what we now call Turkey. It was introduced in Europe in the 16th century. The tulip was very popular in France and Holland. People were actually collecting the tulip bulbs.
The most spectacular and demanded tulips had vivid colors with shapes of stripes and flames on the leaves. The collectors did not know that it was the result of a Mosaic virus.
The rare (infected) tulips were extremely popular. There were hundreds of tulip breeds and it was difficult to keep them apart from each other. That's why books were published with drawings of all these different breeds.
In the height of this rage, in March of 1637, some of these rare tulip bulbs could buy a house. It is generally considered the first recorded economic bubble in history. The term "tulip mania" is now often used to refer to large economic bubbles.
Reliable research about the authenticity of this tulip mania is very difficult because the economic data from the 1630s is extremely limited.
I don't think my (digital impression of a) tulip will ever buy me a house. These days are long gone. But I hope you will at least give it some love. :-)
You will find more about the tulip mania right here:
English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
Dutch: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpenmanie
Very nice pics
Thanks a lot! :-)
Wow, thats really beautiful ... :)
Thanks @artguy :-)
Water droplet make this piece even dynamic ... g
good shot ....
Yes they were just asking to be photographed :-)
I heard about the tulip bubble. In my day I remember the cabbage patch doll and people going crazy with it. I remember people putting ads in the paper selling them for up to $200. Well that bubble busted fast. I remember years ago my sister kept going to McDonalds to buy the happymeal just to get that little stuffed teddy bear cause some were collecting them. She had to stuff the hamburgers in the freezer as she could not eat them all at the time. The ones in first made the money, but all bubbles bust sooner or later.
Bubbles aren't meant to last
That's true bart2305. I'm wondering how much longer this stock market will go on before it finally pops.
For two years now I think it can pop any moment. Nothing happens so far.
I read that Trump tweeted that we needed a good shut down to fix things. So maybe September or October might give us this event that bubbles need to explode.
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Gorgeous photos! :)))
Thanks Pepe