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Tulip - Tulipmania
Most people associate tulips with Holland, "tulips
from Amsterdam" as the song goes, But even before a European envoy found
them in the ornamental garden of a Turkish sultan, they were popular with the
Indian shahs. They were originally native to Turkey, Iran, Syria and parts of
Asia
and have been cultivated in Europe since the 16th century.
It was
the Dutch who began to breed them in 1593. The first tulip bulb was planted by
the Dutch botanist Carolus Clusius, in the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden and by 1633
the Dutch upper classes had been gripped by Tulip mania. Bulb merchants were earning
the equivalent of £30,000 a month by trading in futures. Bulbs were changing
hands for up to £400 - the equivalent of £4 million today, while they
were still in the ground and before the buyer had even seen it in flower!.
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