Knowra Tulip mania Tulip mania Tulip mania was a speculative boom in Dutch tulip-bulb prices that peaked in 1637. Its scale and effects remain disputed because much of the familiar story rests on later accounts.
Dutch Golden Age : A period of economic, cultural, and political prominence in the Dutch Republic, roughly spanning the seventeenth century. Amsterdam’s wealth and trade networks formed the setting for the bulb boom.
Ottoman Empire : A state founded in the late thirteenth century that ruled parts of southeastern Europe, western Asia, and North Africa. Tulips entered western European gardens through exchange with Ottoman lands.
Charles Mackay : A Scottish journalist and author of the 1841 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. His vivid retelling made tulip mania a lasting cautionary tale about crowd behavior.
Semper Augustus : A celebrated seventeenth-century tulip variety known for its red-and-white streaked petals. Its reported prices became emblematic of the boom’s most extravagant valuations.
Financial crisis : A disruption in financial markets that causes sharp losses, failures, or impaired access to credit. Tulip mania is often described as a crisis, though its economy-wide damage is disputed.
Tulip : A spring-flowering plant in the genus Tulipa, cultivated in many varieties. Rare varieties, especially those with striking color patterns, attracted the highest prices.
Carolus Clusius : A sixteenth-century Flemish botanist who established a major botanical garden at Leiden. His cultivation of tulips helped establish the flower in the Dutch Republic.
Earl of Arundel : A title in the English peerage held in the seventeenth century by Thomas Howard, an art collector and patron. Mackay’s account associated an often-repeated tulip anecdote with this English nobleman.
1637 tulip auction : An auction in Haarlem in February 1637 where buyers reportedly failed to appear at expected prices. The episode is commonly treated as a turning point in the tulip market.
Dutch East India Company : A chartered Dutch trading company founded in 1602 with a monopoly over Dutch trade in Asia. Its shares offer a contrasting case of long-lived financial speculation in the Dutch Republic.
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