Bloomin' bulbs - the Dutch love affair with the tulip
According to Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia, tulips are the national flower of both Iran and Turkey, with the name an abused form of the English for turban, probably derived from the custom of wearing flowers within its folds. The answer as to who exactly brought them to Western Europe for the first time depends on which version of history you read. One of the most popular versions cites letters from Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, Ambassador of Ferdinand I to Ottoman ruler Suleyman the Magnificent in 1554. Another cites written records from Conrad Gessner, who saw tulips flowering in the garden of Councillor Herwart in Augsburg, Bavaria in 1559. The accepted story goes that a certain Clusius, while teaching at the University of Leiden, planted several plots of the 'exotic' bulbs for scientific research, noting how certain viruses created variations in colours within the blooms. He did not want to share the bulbs, however, so some were stolen from the gardens. By 1634, a crazed mania had seized the Netherlands, creating a boom/bust industry that took three years to go through its cycle, leaving many financially ruined at the end. It is said that at its height, Tulipomania was so consuming that people thought nothing of risking their homes, lands and fortunes on the bulbs. By 1637, the market had been flooded and the entire economy eventually crashed. Several attempts were made by the government to sort out the massive economic catastrophe, but even the last declaration that ensured contracts would be honoured at 10 percent of their value was almost impossible to enforce. These days, the story of the tulip bulb, the accompanying mania after its introduction to the Netherlands and of the subsequent crash of the Dutch economy, is used as a text-book example of financial speculation gone wild - a morality tale. For historians, it will always remain a point in history when the Dutch were not prudent, but passionate.
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