Call number
Publication
Three Rivers Press (2001), Paperback, 288 pages
Pages
273
Description
In 1630s Holland thousands of people from the wealthiest merchants to the lowest street traders were caught up in a literal frenzy of buying and selling. The object of the speculation was not oil or gold, but the tulip, a delicate and exotic bloom which had just arrived from the east (where it had been the talisman of generations of Ottoman sultans). Over three years, rare tulip bulbs changed hands for sums that would have bought a house in Amsterdam: a single bulb sold for more than £300, 000 at today¿s prices. Fortunes were made overnight, but then lost when, within a year, the market collapsed ¿ with disastrous consequences. Mike Dash recreates this bizarre episode in European history, separating myth from reality. He traces the hysterical boom and devastating bust, bringing to life a colourful cast of characters, and beautifully evoking Holland¿s Golden Age. A highly readable blend of history, horticulture and economics.… (more)
Language
Physical description
273 p.; 8.06 inches
ISBN
060980765X / 9780609807651
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User reviews
LibraryThing member bojanfurst
This was an unexpectedly interesting read. Tulipomania is a well written account of what we would today call an economic bubble. It's a good primer on just how irrational people can get when greed runs amok. It should be a recommended reading in any basic economics class. Dash's writing is
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compelling and he packs numerous historic anecdotes and facts into a very readable narrative bringing to life 17th and 16th century Holland and Turkey consumed by unusual passion for a flower. Show Less
LibraryThing member lkernagh
An excellent read... better than I was expecting. While the book is focused on the tulip mania that overtook the United Provinces - which now comprise modern day Netherlands - from 1635 to the first half of 1636, it is the amazing similarities of that mania to other more recent sharp boom/bust
I was saddened to learn that some of the rarer tulips that helped fuel the tulip mania, are lost to us forever, except in preserved paintings, like the Semper Augusta. Interestingly, the vivid colorful markings of the highly sought after tulips like the Semper Augustus, were not a product of cultivated hybrid breeding. They were a product of a broken tulip infected with the mosaic virus. While the bulb industry has managed to wipe out the mosaic virus, as the author notes, " The infinite variety that each broken tulip could display is gone, and with it much of the flower's capacity to fascinate and astound."
Overall, a wonderful blending of "horticulture meets financial markets" kind of read.
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market scenarios, like the amazing climb and spectacular crash of the price of bitcoins, that caught my attention. The trading of tulips was outside of the regulated stock and futures markets of the time period, and its frenzy was in part fueled by the fact that any one from the wealthy to the common artisans and workers could get involved, even in a small way, in the hopes of cashing in a profit. The lure of making cash in such a simple way must have been too good for many to pass up. With that information in mind, I was only somewhat surprised to learn that the Dutch artist Jan van Guyen had invested, and lost almost everything but the shirt off his back, in the tulip crash. He had given up painting during the tulip mania and it was only because of the financial straights he found himself and his family in that he returned to painting, leaving behind a legacy of brilliant landscapes that, in the words of the author, "many of which would have probably never have been painted had he made his fortune in the tulip trade". I was saddened to learn that some of the rarer tulips that helped fuel the tulip mania, are lost to us forever, except in preserved paintings, like the Semper Augusta. Interestingly, the vivid colorful markings of the highly sought after tulips like the Semper Augustus, were not a product of cultivated hybrid breeding. They were a product of a broken tulip infected with the mosaic virus. While the bulb industry has managed to wipe out the mosaic virus, as the author notes, " The infinite variety that each broken tulip could display is gone, and with it much of the flower's capacity to fascinate and astound."
Overall, a wonderful blending of "horticulture meets financial markets" kind of read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member JNSelko
Riveting story of botanical delusion and greed.
LibraryThing member LMHTWB
Tulipomania is a book concerning the economic mania associated with tulips in the Netherlands, c. 1630. The book traces the origin of tulips from the steppes to what is modern day Turkey to the Netherlands. It also recounts the speculation centered on the price of tulip bulbs.
The writing is clear,
Unfortunately, most of the rest of the book was lacking and resulted in a book that I struggled to finish. One problem is that while there are notes in the back of the book, there are not asterisks, numbers, etc to indicate in the text that there is a note. Another problem is the lack of illustration. One of the key parts of the speculation dealt with the types of tulips available, yet, other than rather poor descriptions of these special tulips, the reader is left to imagine what they might have looked like. The major I had was the key chapters (on the boom and then bust) consisted of whole paragraphs where each sentence contained "perhaps", "possibly", "maybe", or some other word that indicated this was not fact or reasonable assumption. Personally, I would have rather had the author say, "This is what we know..." and "This is what I think..." As is, I have no idea what is known, what is generally assumed, and what the author added to the discussion. And that brings up the final problem -- as presented, the speculation on tulip bulbs in 17th Netherlands just fits too nicely with speculation on modern commodities. Maybe it does fit, maybe it doesn't -- without clear facts in the text, it's hard to decide how much of this history was reshaped by modern experiences.
Overall, I would not recommend reading this book on tulipomania. There are several other books on the topic -- one of them must be better than this.
The writing is clear,
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if not inspirational. The author has spent time gathering sources and thankfully provided those sources in a well organized note section. The first several chapters, concerning the origin of the tulip, were fascinating.Unfortunately, most of the rest of the book was lacking and resulted in a book that I struggled to finish. One problem is that while there are notes in the back of the book, there are not asterisks, numbers, etc to indicate in the text that there is a note. Another problem is the lack of illustration. One of the key parts of the speculation dealt with the types of tulips available, yet, other than rather poor descriptions of these special tulips, the reader is left to imagine what they might have looked like. The major I had was the key chapters (on the boom and then bust) consisted of whole paragraphs where each sentence contained "perhaps", "possibly", "maybe", or some other word that indicated this was not fact or reasonable assumption. Personally, I would have rather had the author say, "This is what we know..." and "This is what I think..." As is, I have no idea what is known, what is generally assumed, and what the author added to the discussion. And that brings up the final problem -- as presented, the speculation on tulip bulbs in 17th Netherlands just fits too nicely with speculation on modern commodities. Maybe it does fit, maybe it doesn't -- without clear facts in the text, it's hard to decide how much of this history was reshaped by modern experiences.
Overall, I would not recommend reading this book on tulipomania. There are several other books on the topic -- one of them must be better than this.
Show Less
LibraryThing member amerynth
I really enjoyed reading Mike Dash's "Tulipmania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions it Aroused." The book follows the 1630's Dutch mania for tulip flower varieties, which became a national obsession for a short time.
Dutch citizens became enriched on paper
This is a well-written book about a fascinating time. I was disappointed that the book did not have any photographs of the flowers to help illustrate the story -- however, I somehow accidentally ordered a large print copy of the book from the library, so maybe it's just that edition. If so, it's still disappointing that pictures couldn't be included.
Dutch citizens became enriched on paper
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in a sort of futures market where they traded for tulip bulbs that weren't going to be harvested for months. Then, prices dropped out and chains of buyers were left without the money to pay for flowers, some of which sold for more than the cost of a house.This is a well-written book about a fascinating time. I was disappointed that the book did not have any photographs of the flowers to help illustrate the story -- however, I somehow accidentally ordered a large print copy of the book from the library, so maybe it's just that edition. If so, it's still disappointing that pictures couldn't be included.
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LibraryThing member lkarr
This has a wealth of fascinating information, but he does get bogged down in minutiae at times.
LibraryThing member librken
This book disappoints because the author gets carried away in his love for historical context. The promise of the book is an examination of "how could they get so carried away?" when trading tulips, buying tulips, buying tulip futures, etc, etc, to the point that single bulbs made some persons
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fortunes and destroyed the financial statuses of others. But the book spends 50% or more of its time describing the entire history of tulips, how they got to Europe, how business was conducted in Holland, and other cultural matters. If you are more interested in the entire historical view than I, you'll like this book better than I did. I was more interested in the socio-economic factors and the book really drops the ball on that one when it really doesn't do a very good job of analyzing how the entire bubble built up and how it burst. Show Less
LibraryThing member EvelynBernard
When economists need to summon an age of unchecked speculation and financial fecklessness, the Dutch tulip mania is at the top of the list. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s an early example of the vagaries of the stock market. In the mid-1630s, the Dutch fell in love with tulips. The
The book begins with a history of the origins and cultivation of the tulip in the Ottoman Empire and how it came to be introduced in the Netherlands by botanist Carolus Clusius, who established an extensive garden at the University of Leiden.
The demand for tulips of a rare species increased so much in the year 1636, that regular markets for their sale were established on the Stock Exchange of Amsterdam, in Rotterdam, Harlaem, Leyden, Alkmar, Hoorn, and other towns. The tulip-jobbers speculated in the rise and fall of the tulip stocks. People of all grades converted their property into cash, and invested it in flowers. Houses and lands were offered for sale at ruinously low prices, or assigned in payment of bargains made at the tulip-mart.
This book was an interesting story of botany and greed and what can happen when the latter triumphs.
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flower became a status symbol, and the Dutch were all but tripping over each other in a race to conspicuously consume. To satisfy burgeoning demand, speculators began to trade in what were essentially tulip futures; these grew outlandishly complicated and expensive, and on the third of February, 1637, the tulip market collapsed.The book begins with a history of the origins and cultivation of the tulip in the Ottoman Empire and how it came to be introduced in the Netherlands by botanist Carolus Clusius, who established an extensive garden at the University of Leiden.
The demand for tulips of a rare species increased so much in the year 1636, that regular markets for their sale were established on the Stock Exchange of Amsterdam, in Rotterdam, Harlaem, Leyden, Alkmar, Hoorn, and other towns. The tulip-jobbers speculated in the rise and fall of the tulip stocks. People of all grades converted their property into cash, and invested it in flowers. Houses and lands were offered for sale at ruinously low prices, or assigned in payment of bargains made at the tulip-mart.
This book was an interesting story of botany and greed and what can happen when the latter triumphs.
Show Less
LibraryThing member PhyllisHarrison
Well-researched, history of the tulip from early beginnings.