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How did a flower cause an economic disaster?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

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April 2, 2002

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Ogier de Busbecq was an ambassador for the Hapsburgs. In 1555, he was sent to negotiate with Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. While traveling the area of Constantinople, de Busbecq saw the fabulous tulips cultivated in the Turkish empire. De Busbecq sent bulbs to his botanist friend, Carolus Clusius working in Prague and Vienna.

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Clusius was well-known for his scientific studies of medicinal plants; he directed the Imperial Medicinal Herb Garden of Prague. In the 1590s, Clusius' religious beliefs jeopardized his career at the Garden. He took the position of head botanist with the new Hortus (botanical garden) of the University of Leyden (Netherlands). Before he left Vienna, he dug the tulip bulbs sent to him by de Busbecq.

Clusius planted the tulips in Leyden's Hortus valuing the plants from a scientific point of view. When gardeners saw the blooms, the bulbs were in instant demand. Clusius refused to give any away and, it's said, demanded a high price for them. A portion of the tulip collection was stolen and started the infamous Tulipomania.

Clusius's bulbs became the "rage". Anybody who was anybody had to have the streaked tulips in their garden. The tulips, dubbed Rembrandts, were often depicted in paintings by Dutch Masters. The Rembrandts were infected with a virus; eventually the virus won and the plant died.

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Tulipomania was an economic phenomenon--a speculation bubble or more crassly, the "greater fool expectation". The price of tulip bulbs climbed to the modern equivalent of thousands of dollars. People bet their homes, land, daughters' dowries, and sometimes their lives thinking they would find a buyer who would pay more. Most people never even planted the tulips; the bulbs were too valuable to put into the ground.

The bubble popped in February, 1637. The tulip market was saturated with bulbs, the economy crashed and homes, land, and businesses were lost.

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