Tulipmania became famous as a story of people paying fortunes for tulip bulbs in 17th-century Holland. However, historical research suggests the craze involved a relatively small group and did not destroy the Dutch economy.
Its price reportedly climbed from 1,000 guilders in 1623 to 3,000 guilders in 1625. Because they looked pretty, tulip trading was not simply people buying flowers. But there is a catch. Much of the famous story has been exaggerated over the centuries. Historian Anne Goldgar’s research shows that Tulipmania was not a nationwide frenzy in which everyone gambled away fortunes. It was a much smaller, stranger story about rarity, fashion, social status and changing ideas of value. Tulips were still relatively new in the Netherlands. Their unusual colours and patterns made them exotic collector’s items rather than ordinary garden flowers. There were also practical reasons for high prices. Some rare bulbs existed in extremely small numbers. The famous Semper Augustus, for example, was exceptionally scarce. Collectors wanted rare specimens, while professional growers wanted bulbs they could propagate and sell later. A tulip bulb could be worthless to one person and immensely desirable to another. That value depended on rarity, fashion, reputation and the possibility of making money from it later.