ZAP’S FACTS!
FLOWERS

In 1637, a single tulip bulb cost more than a house in Holland.

For a few mad months, the Dutch went tulip-crazy - then the whole market crashed in a single week.

2 min read
In 1637, a single tulip bulb cost more than a house in Holland.
THE FULL STORY

Tulips were brought to Holland from Turkey in the 1500s and the Dutch went bananas for them. Some varieties had wild striped patterns (now known to be caused by a virus) that nobody could reliably reproduce. By the 1630s, rare bulbs were being traded like rare baseball cards, and prices went into orbit.

At the peak in February 1637, a single bulb of the famous “Semper Augustus” reportedly sold for the price of a grand canal-side mansion in Amsterdam. People mortgaged their homes to buy bulbs they’d never planted, hoping to flip them for even more money the next week.

Then it all collapsed. In one bewildering week, buyers vanished and prices fell 99%. Tulip Mania is now studied in schools as the first recorded financial bubble - proof that humans have been losing their minds over hyped-up assets for nearly 400 years.

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