Tulips from Amsterdam and the mania it brought

By Pathiravithana

"When it's spring again I'll bring again

Tulips from Amsterdam

With a heart that's true I'll give to you

Tulips from Amsterdam"

But why tulips? I haven't seen a tulip in real life, but I have seen many pictures of them and in colour, too. They didn't strike me as the ravishing kind nor did they seem as colourful enough to swoon over, just an ordinary flower and as its name suggests, like a turban. How unromantic, I thought, but there you are that's how it is, for it derives its name from the Turkish or Persian dulban meaning turban. The beauty of a flower is one thing but the scent it exudes is another. The tulip is said to have none. Even the meanest flower that blows, like a pigeon orchid, wafts a scent by night so exquisite, so refined and sophisticated that you wonder why the tulip which has no scent, not even that of a rose. has managed to push itself to the front. If it is spectacle that you want then there is our Kandyan Dancer, which, with only a gentle wind, stirs itself into a shimmering dance.

Talking about tulips

Although the tulip grows abundantly in Europe now, it was introduced to that continent at a time when exotic things like potatoes and tobacco were coming to Europe from distant parts of the world under its burgeoning capitalism. In the case of the tulip it happened to catch the eye of an Austrian ambassador when he was representing his country at the court of Sulaiman the Magnificent under whom the Ottoman Empire reached the peak of its power. This was around the time when the Portuguese had settled down among us and were trying to get their teeth into us around 1560. He was permitted to remove a few bulbs to be tried out back home and before long all Europe was talking about tulips. It was in Holland, however, the interest in tulips grew most at the close of the 16 th century.

This was because one of the great botanists of 16th century Europe by the name of Carolus Clusius of Flanders, a Dutch speaking neighbouring country of Holland, laid the foundation for the Dutch breeding of tulips. He discovered that a virus was responsible for causing many different flamed and feathered varieties of tulips that added a distinction to this flower that led it to be, in particular, much sought after in Holland. Flowers that carried names such as Semper Augustus and Viceory were all the rage in Holland so much so it led to a mass hysteria during a short period known today as 'tulip mania' and that was just before the Dutch replaced the Portuguese in Ceylon. Of course this variety was expensive and only the rich could afford to buy. This craze for tulips seems to have brought out all the petty vanities of human nature. It soon got about that not to have a tulip around the place was an indication of poor taste. The rich in Amsterdam were rich enough to order tulip bulbs for cultivation direct from Constantinople.

Meanwhile the middle classes, the shopkeepers and merchants of moderate means vied with each other paying absurd prices to possess these flowers. Not to be outdone the lower orders made every effort to show off their taste as well, but they had to be satisfied with the less expensive variety known as Crown Yellow. Two amusing incidents may help us to understand how much the Dutch were overwhelmed by this craze for tulips. A wealthy merchant once ordered a consignment of these tulip bulbs from the Levant. The news of its arrival was brought to him by a sailor and the pleased merchant rewarded his informant with a herring for his breakfast. You must remember that the Dutch are reputed to be not only a prudent people but also a parsimonious people and they have lent their names to a few English idioms that show these qualities like a Dutch treat and Going Dutch, meaning you pay for your eating.

The reward of a herring was accepted gratefully by the sailor who went on his way to take his breakfast picking up what looked like an onion, which was lying on the merchant's counter, as a tasty accompaniment for his herring. The merchant on discovering that his expensive Semper Augustus valued at ?280 was missing, looked high and low for the missing bulb.

He set up an alarm and went looking for that sailor who was the last to pass that way. When they finally discovered him he was sitting peacefully on a pile of rope giving the finishing touches to his herring and onion breakfast.

Misfortune and Holland

The merchant was horrified and was heard to lament that with that money he could have got from the tulip bulb "I might have sumptuously fed the Prince of Orange and the whole court of the Stadtholder." The only way he could satisfy himself now was to bring this simple soul, who knew not the difference between an onion and a tulip bulb, before a magistrate who put him into jail for a few months on being found guilty on a charge of felony. The other misfortune happened to an Englishman who was travelling through Holland.

He was an amateur botanist who happened to pick up a tuber from the garden of a Dutchman and immediately set about peeling it with his penknife, alternately taking down notes in a diary. The owner of the bulb pounced on the man and asked him, "Do you know what you are doing?" "Peeling a most extraordinary onion," he said. "It's an Admiral Van der Eyck and it's worth a hundred thousand duyvel." shouted the horrified Dutchman. "Thank you," said the Englishman and took out his diary to make a note. The Dutchman not taking note of his eccentricity seized him by the collar and dragged him along to the magistrate, followed by a motley crowd, who then lodged him in jail until he compensated the enraged Dutchman.

A similar mania was to grip the country of the jailed Englishman about a hundred years later when people rushed to invest in stock companies, which promised to bring nuggets of gold from the Spanish Main in South America. It ended up in the history books as the South Sea Bubble. In Holland the tulip mania had already gripped the Dutch and was reaching South Sea Bubble proportions when tulip transactions entered the Dutch stock exchange.

What prompted this was the fact that tulip bulbs took about three months to reach the flowering stage. It must be said that the tulip speculation was related only to the most expensive varieties - the Semper Augustuses and the Van Eycks and so on. Those who had booked the bulbs from the growers of tulips were given promissory notes assuring the date of delivery. The promissory notes in turn became marketable at a higher price and this turned out to be a gamble like the buying and selling of shares.

The gambler who was to secure the promissory note last of all was left holding the flower and in no way to gain from his gamble. Many citizens angry at what was happening to the flower market complained to the government, which then passed legislation to end this practice. And one more incident that happened at the height of the tulip mania.

Tulip mania

A farmer who was looking to buy a Viceroy variety of tulip bulb found a grower who could meet his needs. But the price was the question. When the Viceroy was ready he had agreed to transfer "two [loads] of wheat and four of rye, four fat oxen, eight pigs, a dozen sheep, two oxheads of wine, four tons of butter, a thousand pounds of cheese, a bed, some clothing and a silver beaker." The farmer's worldly goods did amount to about 2500 guilders and that apparently was not too high a price to pay.

For there have been flowers like Semper Augustus which were sold for 6000 guilders. In today's dollar values that would be in the 30,000 range. All for a single tulip bulb. As Sir Issac Newton is said to have remarked soon after losing 20,000 speculating on the South Sea Bubble, "I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men."