Dr Kat and 'Tulip Mania'

I thought I knew all about “Tulip Mania” and I was planning to share the ridiculous tale with you all. However, once is scratched the surface of the story and the “click bait” I discovered that recent scholarship has a far more moderate story to tell!

I hope you enjoy this video and find it interesting!

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Images:

Charles Mackay by Herbert Watkins (albumen print, late 1850s). Held by the National Portrait Gallery.

Quoted texts:

Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Peter M. Garber, Famous First Bubbles: The Fundamentals of Early Manias (2001)

Anne Goldgar, Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age (2008)

[williamharris]

Thank-you for covering this topic. Economic History is terribly underrepresented in mainstream media (unlike, say, Military History), and I am delighted that you are helping remedy that deficiency in some small way. I second the call for a future video about the South Sea Bubble.

[BullenaktienDe]

This is a very well researched report. More people should see this. Thank you so much, Dr Kat.

[stokerjane]

As a Dutch citizen I think it was just plain greed...just a group of people trying to get rich quick, without much work effort [we still say; "getting rich while sleeping" ("slapend rijk worden"). Just like playing the Lottery. I don't believe that the 'Tulip Mania' was a real "National" obsession. Or spread far beyond the wealthier West part of the Contry, and it's few big merchant cities in the Netherlands. People in the countryside did not travel much and news spread slowly in those days. Most were dirt poor, kept their heads down, and tried to just survive from day to day. Plus we were at heart a Lutheran/Protestant Nation (especially in the countryside) who were weary of outward & showy opulence. Fearful of what God thought of that. It still confuses me, how that National "mindset", could eventually be squared with all the "showy" wealth (amongst the few very wealthy Dutch traders). As you see happening in the 'Dutch Golden Age' years.✌🏻

[jasonmack]

Darn! First, it was Walter Raleigh and the cloak; then, it was Marie Antoinette and "cake"; now this. LOL I think we just love the notion of the fantastic.

[sailorgirl]

As a Canadian, I appreciate the gift of 10, 000 bulbs every year to our Government from The Netherlands, in appreciation for designating a single hospital room as Netherland territory to the Princess so she could be born on Netherland soil.

[kelliknackmuhs]

Hello Dr.Kat! I think this story reminds us of what folks are willing to sacrifice or give for the newest and most unique thing. In my lifetime, the first edition of Cabbage Patch dolls in the late 70’s early 80’s were expensive and impossible for parents to obtain. A wealthy couple who were dear friends of our family deposited a “decent” amount of money in a local bank TWICE to obtain a doll for my sister and I for Christmas that year. ( Neither mu parents or we requested them). I kept her until a fee years ago because of the crazy i remembered at the time, and the kindness they showed. Folks fought over them! It is not as nationally important as the Tulip Crisis but.. it gives me context. Have a great day!

[tracymeyers]

Though this has comment has nothing to do with tulips. It does address the “hardship” and disappointment when one is confronted with “true” reality of what one believed as a historical event. For me, this happened, when as an adult, I discovered that the “history” of the story of the Von Trappe Family, as portrayed in the Sound of Music was NOT accurate, not a true historical account. Yes, I knew that Maria didn’t go singing the “Hills are Alive” in the mountains of Austria. But, as a child I was told that the “history” of the family being against Nazism, Hitler and not wanting to be forced to participate and ultimately their escape over the mountains was true. Imagine my disappointment when I learned, as adult, that the family willingly performed for Hitler and his henchmen and that they NEVER had to escape, they simply got on a train, rode out and chose to emigrate to the “golden streets” of the United States. In learning this, the story and the movie lose a great deal for me. It was my favorite movie that played every year, at Christmas, when I was a child. And, even after 30 years of now knowing the truth, I am greatly saddened - mournful - that it no longer is “special” in my eyes and heart, there is still a great disappointment. So . . . all that said as a way to answer your question about why some choose to hold onto “it is too fantastic to be fiction!” I don’t know, hopefully I’ve made some sense.

[mistermoo]

Thanks Dr. Kat. The adage 'A fool and his money are soon parted' may hold the key to our delight in Mackay's sensational telling of this tale. When a story is told that adheres to this narrative, we enjoy it. You initially referred to the dutch investors as 'foolish' at first. 'Financial fecklessness' is the word Piepnbring uses! Same with the 'more fantastic than fiction' line. The satisfaction we derive from a closed loop or a perfect example to galvanize our point, can be caused by activation of reward pathways in our brain. It's a powerfully pleasing feeling, so thank you for examining the easy 'high' and digging deeper.

[FoxglovedLove]

People just love a wild story and being able to feel as if we are better or smarter than those from the past.

[georgijimenez]

For me it's the beautiful tulip it self. The beauty of the flower it self so many different colors. Love them

[mesamies]

Such an intelligent and perceptive reading. Thank you.

[baldrickt.adder-slayer]

We like to believe that we are so much more advanced and sophisticated than "the superstitious" weirdos of the past; but when you consider that someone recently, with clearly more money than brains, just purchased "banana taped to a board" for millions, I think it is highly likely that this tulip tally is accurate. Need I mention the sports and movie stars that buy gold toilet bowls?

[kassistwisted]

Honestly, I can't bring myself to believe it was truly a mania. I am a historian (of clothing) and I live in the Netherlands. The idea of the sober, conservative, frugal Dutch selling their farms and throwing away their livelihoods to buy a single tulip bulb strikes me as false. As a show of wealth, yes. Risking the bank on one bulb? I can't wrap my head around it. Not in the Netherlands.

[janebaker]

The Tulipmania is a wonderfully flamboyant story. As a keen amateur gardener I find tulips entrancing. The blooms are sensual and sexy. They are less good value for money than daffodils in that daffodils once planted will generally come up and flower every year after but most tulips only flower the once and need growing on for a couple of years before they would flower again so mostly you but new ones to put in. So they are, sort of, more of a luxury. But who wouldn't be swept away by the beauty of these lovely flowers. I think all these crypto-currencies are going to leave a lot of people crying in the end.

[valerieshepherd]

Truly enjoyed listening to this. It especially rang true as I am doing so from a quarantine home during the Covid pandemic.

[rebeccanorris]

I think we like to believe ourselves to be superior to others, and use their follies to confirm that. I live here in Florida (USA) and twice a year we are driven mad by love bugs. (a harmless but annoying insect) EVERY YEAR I hear a plethora of people, educated people, laugh about how the love bugs were "invented." According to the story, the University of Florida created them in a lab and released them hoping they would eat mosquitoes and because of those idiot scientist we have to deal with the bugs twice a year. Not a single part of this story is true. They were not some sort of lab experiment gone wrong, they are actually a native species in Florida and some parts of South America. The story is fantastic and ridiculous, yet taken as the GOSPEL TRUTH. So many Floridians consider this to be a well known fact, and will even argue when you explain it isn't true. We love to believe the crazy things.

[janewhite]

I enjoyed this video and thought it was a very well expressed explanation of a more real situation regarding so-called tulip mania so thank you

[kamion]

thank you for de-sentionalising the Tulip Mania. As being Dutch I find the Tulip Mania as annoying as the Hans Brinkers story and while there are enough sensational stories to tell about the Golden Age, the conquest and loss of Brasil, or the regime of terror over Banda, the ludicrous story of the Tulip Mania always stands out as a hallmark of the Dutch Golden Age.

[sharonkaczorowski]

I am reminded of the adage I often heard as a child...”People are starving” ...as a response to this kind of behavior. I think it know when the purchases of gold plated bathroom fixtures and other such purchases appear in the press.

[georgijimenez]

Love all that u are teaching to me about English history. Very very interesting. Keeps me wanting more thank