By Rafe Calder
The usual version goes like this. In the 1630s the whole Dutch Republic lost its head over tulips, fortunes were wagered on single bulbs, the market collapsed and thousands were ruined. It is a good story. A fair amount of it is now doubted.
What a scholarly study found
Anne Goldgar’s Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age (University of Chicago Press, 2007) is a scholarly study that challenges the usual version. Its introduction says the people involved were not everyone in the Netherlands, and that prices for some varieties spiked briefly but “many never increased greatly in value”. It says “Tulipmania did not destroy the economy, or even the livelihoods of most participants.” The excerpt describes the market collapsing in early February 1637, when buyers largely refused to pay and sellers were left holding bulbs, and presents the episode as a social and cultural crisis more than a financial one. Goldgar traces the familiar stories of ruin and folly mainly to pamphlets of the 1630s, which later writers, including Charles Mackay in 1841, repeated.
What a review of the book says
A review in Reviews in History (2008) describes the traders as “solid citizens: merchants, brewers, craftsmen-traders and the like”, concentrated in Holland, especially Haarlem and Amsterdam, and mostly collectors before they were speculators. It says that after prices fell, buyers “simply refused to pay” and neglected to collect their bulbs, so real losses were probably well below the paper losses. It states that “very few bankruptcies can in fact be attributed to tulipmania”. The reviewer notes that the painter Jan van Goyen’s bankruptcy came nearly two decades later, in 1656, and that he had also lost money in land deals.
Dates in order
- 1630s: prices for the most prized bulbs rise, according to the review.
- Early February 1637: the market collapses, according to the Chicago Press excerpt.
- 1656: Jan van Goyen’s bankruptcy, according to the review.
- 1841: Mackay’s account is published, according to the Chicago Press excerpt.
- 2007: Goldgar’s study is published.
What we left out
Contract mechanics, the Semper Augustus bulb, price figures and the explanations economists have offered. We could not source them beyond one encyclopaedia.
Quick answers
When did tulip mania happen? Goldgar’s study places it in the 1630s, with the market collapsing in early February 1637.
Who traded tulips? The Reviews in History review describes merchants, brewers and craftsmen-traders, mostly in Holland, especially Haarlem and Amsterdam.
Did tulip mania ruin the Dutch economy? Goldgar writes that it “did not destroy the economy, or even the livelihoods of most participants”.
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