In the meticulously researched “Tulipmania” (University of Chicago Press; 400 pages), Anne Goldgar tells another story entirely. In her account, the tulip traders were wealthy merchants with money to burn—hardly a representative cross-section of Dutch society. Far from wiping out the Dutch economy, she writes, the 1637 crash only dented the bank accounts of those rich enough to speculate in the first place. Meanwhile, in the two years prior, bubonic plague had killed approximately 135,000 Amsterdam residents and the region was mired in decades-long military conflict. Indeed, the average 17th-century Dutch laborer had more important things to worry about than flowers.
The real damage, Goldgar claims, was more personal. The traders were friends and neighbors; many were members of the close-knit Mennonite community. They bought and sold flowers on a market that functioned because a man’s word was his bond. After the crash, however, buyers refused to make good on promises to pay. Suddenly, friends questioned one another’s honor. In response, lawsuits were filed—but for slander rather than nonpayment. Dutch pamphleteers, who believed they were witnessing the breakdown of the social order, proclaimed the arrival of the Apocalypse. Fortunately, they were wrong, and a hundred years later there was a new mania to bemoan: the hyacinth.
title: “A Flood Of Flowers” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-09” author: “Brian Cook”
In the meticulously researched “Tulipmania” (University of Chicago Press; 400 pages), Anne Goldgar tells another story entirely. In her account, the tulip traders were wealthy merchants with money to burn—hardly a representative cross-section of Dutch society. Far from wiping out the Dutch economy, she writes, the 1637 crash only dented the bank accounts of those rich enough to speculate in the first place. Meanwhile, in the two years prior, bubonic plague had killed approximately 135,000 Amsterdam residents and the region was mired in decades-long military conflict. Indeed, the average 17th-century Dutch laborer had more important things to worry about than flowers.
The real damage, Goldgar claims, was more personal. The traders were friends and neighbors; many were members of the close-knit Mennonite community. They bought and sold flowers on a market that functioned because a man’s word was his bond. After the crash, however, buyers refused to make good on promises to pay. Suddenly, friends questioned one another’s honor. In response, lawsuits were filed—but for slander rather than nonpayment. Dutch pamphleteers, who believed they were witnessing the breakdown of the social order, proclaimed the arrival of the Apocalypse. Fortunately, they were wrong, and a hundred years later there was a new mania to bemoan: the hyacinth.
