Six friends gather around a patch of dirt in the Netherlands. Cornelis, Dirk, Symon, Reynier, Other Cornelis and Andries (clearly this is not 2022). They’re digging up something that is meant to be worth 30 guilders. That is, the price of a pretty modest house back in 1637. A whole house worth of value in a small buried item. Gold? Gemstones? An incredibly well-bred and fanciful horse? No dear reader, it was nothing of the sort. It was in fact, a single tulip bulb.
You may have heard the story of tulip mania in the Netherlands. How an entire country goes mad over a single flower. And how it all collapses in a matter of days. But almost all of the popular history around this time is erroneous - an oversimplification. A bit like judging the 90s on just Blink 182 albums.
There is a much deeper story here.
First, the setting. We jump back to 1585, when the Netherlands gained independence from the Spanish empire, kicking off a century of explosive economic growth. While the rest of Europe was slumming it through a period known as the ’General Crisis’, the Dutch became a dominant trade power and got very rich. During this time Jehan Somer, the son of a magistrate, took two years off to go backpacking (ok, luxury touring back then). During his time away he visits Constantinople. Recently taken over by the Ottoman Turkish empire, Constantinople at that time was nice. Impressive gardens with very impressive flowers.
Somer returned to the Netherlands with a bug for flowers. He showed his buddies back home all the sweet flowers he’d found. Dogtooth violets, auricles, double narcissi, lilies, crocuses and tulips.
But tulips? Well, tulips were special.
Join us as we make this journey through the Netherlands in the 17th century and how this story has so many parallels with our modern-day manias. We dive down beyond the simplistic takes and ask what happened, what caused it and what it says about today.
Sources:
Anne Goldgar: Tulip mania: the classic story of a Dutch financial bubble is mostly wrong
Charles Mackay: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Bloomeffects: The history of eating tulips
Tulipmania Art Journal: The most expensive tulip bulb in history costed as much as the finest house on the most fashionable Amsterdam canal
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Will 00:00
The six friends stood around the bare patch of soil.
Rod 00:04
Rachel, Joey Chandler, Phoebe.
Will 00:07
They do have cool names. The bare patch of soil in amongst the flowers in Andrejs' garden, there was Cornelius, Dirk Simon, Reyna, other Cornelius and of course Andrejs.
Rod 00:22
These aren't people
Will 00:23
They're people
Rod 00:24
Cornelius.
Will 00:25
Well, Cornelius and other Cornelius Andres had buried it there a few months ago. And now what Well now it was time to dig it up. Righto then dig it up. Someone probably said, acting as witnesses the friends watched while Andrejs turned over the bare soil. And there it was. God dammit, someone probably saying that double crossing bastard. Someone else probably said. Let's get down to the old rooster. He's always there. So the six friends formed a posse and charge down to the old rooster. And very was the third Cornelius. Cornelius double. Literally the double crosser. He would of course have known exactly what was coming because he done this a few times before
Rod 01:17
That's the third Cornelius. A cunning bugger.
Will 01:20
Andre slammed it down on the table small brown about the size of an onion. You cheated me. I paid 30 Goddamn guilders for this and it's worthless. He could have bought a house for that price. added one of the Cornelius is for the sake of people living in other times and places.
Rod 01:37
Thank you.
Will 01:39
Cornelius double the third. Cornelius looked around slyly. Gentleman not so noisy. This is a respectable Tavern
Rod 01:47
Is this your Dutch accent?
Will 01:49
I'm not doing it.
Rod 01:50
I'm not sure Morrissey? This is a respectable Tavern
Will 01:52
There you go. Thank you. I was hoping you would do that. But I don't care on Andreas yelled, you've drilled a goddamn hole through it. Is this what we florists are now and there it was clear evidence of drill marks. The other Cornelius is Dirk Simon and Reiner are glad menacingly. Double said you've got me, but perhaps not. Let's get anyone else involved. Perhaps we settle this like gentleman
Rod 02:16
Gentleman florists?
Will 02:17
Gentleman florists. So they settled double. This is the third Cornelius. It's weird that the third Cornelius is double. There's two Cornelius's disease friends. And then there's Cornelius double. That's the double cross. The double cross Oh, It makes sense, then you should be double. So they settled. Double paid Andreas says 30 guilders back plus a 20. fine, which is cool in a respectable agreement between friends florist fee, and and the 43 guilders profit that Andreas was expecting to make. But what was it that Andres had bought for the price of a small house? Well, I said before it was small brown about the size of an onion. And for a brief period in 1637 people in the Netherlands went absolutely mad for them paying not not just 30 guilders enough to buy what I said a pretty modest townhouse. But 10,000 guilders
Rod 03:13
I've got two ideas.
Will 03:14
Yeah?
Rod 03:14
One's truffles and the other one is basically ossified poo from something famous.
Will 03:21
close but no. But enough to buy like the best house the best house in town as they say one of the grandest homes on the most fashionable canal
Rod 03:30
30 guilders is a mega home
Will 03:31
No 30 guilders is a modest time. 10,000 guilders. Well is your fancy home. And by modest I think it was horrible. I know that
Rod 03:38
This hole with a roof?
Will 03:40
I know that there were houses for 18 guilders at the time but don't know what's good. Anyway, know that one of the grandest houses on the most fashionable canal in Amsterdam, complete with a coach house and a 25 metre garden.
Rod 03:52
All of that special canal is there on the best street. We don't have streets we have canals
Will 03:57
Beautiful. Or there's one one description of high price paid for this good. They didn't convert into money they converted into goods and they said okay, it's the equivalent of two lasts of wheat for lasts of rice for fat oxen, eight fats wine 12 fat sheep, two hogsheads of wine, hang on four tonnes of beer. Two tonnes of butter 1000 pounds of cheese, a complete bed, a suit of clothes and a silver drinking cup.
Rod 04:22
What's the last?
Will 04:23
A measurement of wheat or rye
Rod 04:26
And two is more than one.
Will 04:27
It's definitely well look, I knew that you would understand tonnes of butter or 1000 pounds of cheese.
Rod 04:32
That's how I buy my cheese. So yes, I do. I can visualise I have some of that home right now.
Will 04:37
Well, it was a tulip and I'm going to tell the story of that crazy purchase. Welcome to the Wholesome Show, the science podcast where we gaze in pure delight at the hole of science.
Rod 05:09
I'm gazing at it right now
Will 05:11
The wholesome show is me, Will Grant
Rod 05:13
And me Roderick G Lambert's That's it. That's where you're getting really good. Where you get his most of all syllables in my entire name.
Will 05:20
It's very nice of you.
Rod 05:21
I haven't got a syllables. I have too many syllables. Roderick Gryphon. Lambert's, that's too many syllables.
Will 05:27
It's not that many
Rod 05:28
it's not the most
Will 05:29
it's not Cornelius,
Rod 05:30
Cornelius Dubli.
Will 05:32
Cornelius. So I'm gonna tell you a story of of a fairly famous historical event today.
Rod 05:39
I haven't heard of it can't be famous because when it comes to history, I'm equal. I don't know yet. But I assume I haven't. The only thing I know better than history is geography.
Will 05:46
This is where you know, you know how when we drill into a topic, and after a while, I think I know everyone knows this topic now. Because I've spent the last few days yeah, drilling into it. I'm like, Well, of course everyone I know. I'm sure. That's just my brain.
Rod 05:59
I do that every time like the last episode we did. I walked in, I thought the moment I mentioned the car, you're gonna go, oh yeah that
Will 06:09
I just want to say just a note on sources before we dive in, because there's a whole bunch of things out there written on this event. But I wanted to flag the one that I used so much, because it is just so awesome. But also shows how much all of the other versions really got it wrong for ages.
Rod 06:25
How do you know?
Will 06:27
she tells me so yeah, it's it's an old guys book. Tulipmania.
Rod 06:30
So Tulip is slang right? You know that?
Will 06:32
What for?
Rod 06:34
Lady Parts?
Will 06:34
What? What?
Rod 06:36
It's one of the ways of calling someone a thing that some would consider a slur and others would not? Tulip, I didn't make it up. I'm only bringing information. Just a messenger.
Will 06:47
It's not my fault either.
Rod 06:49
No, I don't think you invented it.
Will 06:51
Look. In fairness, we may have done topics in the past that may have had double entendres in them
Rod 06:57
Name two. So this book told you that this book is the best book and all other books,
Will 07:04
Which is a weird thing for a book to say. But in fairness, I went through a description of what she did is very different from what everyone else did, which was not perfect. Anyway, we'll come to that. Okay, so the story starts with a backpacker who brought back a bug. As a lot of backpackers do. They go somewhere, they bring back some sort of,
Rod 07:25
systemic thing.
Will 07:27
It could be, could be
Rod 07:28
not like a literal bug, though, like a critter?
Will 07:31
No. might have done that as well. In about 1585, the Netherlands gained independence from the Empire of Philip of Spain. I don't think they liked the empire of Philip of Spain. But they got independence. And they went nutso they went, this is the best thing ever will become a republic. And we're just going to do what we want, but as much as we can. And the next I think they did they love this. I don't know, they went the next 150 years are called the Dutch Golden Age, they became the richest people in the world. Yeah, they're not a big country. They did a whole lot of naughty colonialism. But you know, they did a lot of good trade,
Rod 08:07
I think back then they just called the colonialism. It was just
Will 08:10
That's true. we're adding value judgments now
Rod 08:13
they just called a commerce. They probably call it good colonialism.
Will 08:16
Yeah, they did a bunch of that. But but they became they had the highest standard of living in the world. They were the richest in the world. They just became like they were 150 200 years before everyone else. They were like, Oh, this is modern life.
Rod 08:28
This is mid 1800s
Will 08:30
No, no way before that. So this is the 1585 Oh, so from 1600 to like 1750 or something like that. It was the Dutch Golden Age,
Rod 08:39
Trade routes, those and part of it, they had ports and stuff and in between things.
Will 08:43
Well Yeah, so the explosive growth it started with, you know, so they became independent. Then they went, they had a technological revolution in shipping shipbuilding, I don't know what it was, but they did.
Rod 08:52
Water free - making them waterproof.
Will 08:55
That might have been it. It could have been I mean, they had an agricultural revolution, an early Industrial Revolution, powered by wind, water and peat.
Rod 09:05
So am I
Will 09:06
So they did a bunch of land reclamation, they did a bunch of things. And this is the era when you know, all of the Dutch masters, you know,
Rod 09:11
Your Rembrandts, and other.
Will 09:14
Yeah, I was I was doing this, looking for this. And so many of these Dutch masters paintings come up. I've got got some pictures while I was doing just some of them
Rod 09:22
Rembrandt and Pieter
Will 09:25
Pieter Bruegel, the elder, and Pieter Bruegel
Rod 09:28
Pieter Bruegel?
Will 09:32
Yeah, so heaps and heaps of famous paintings from that era. So anyway, that's super rich. This is while the rest of Europe is still living in shit. The rest of Europe had a period called the general crisis. I didn't look into what it was, but it didn't sound great. I mean, that's not what you call the good era.
Rod 09:48
It's called the inverse Dutch period.
Will 09:50
Anyway, this is why Jehan Somer? Jehan, Jehan. Yes, who was the son of a magistrate in Middleburg, which is an island
Rod 10:00
Is it in between upper and lower Burg?
Will 10:02
It might be it's a town on an island off the coast, the son of a magistrate, so he's pretty well off but so that's why he was able to go backpacking for two years. In 1590
Rod 10:12
It doesn't sound well off to me. Luxury touring sounds well off backpacking.
Will 10:16
Okay. It might have been luxury touring it he might have started that way and
Rod 10:21
A, really nice backpack
Will 10:23
I just I just this is my idea of the young person's life. Two years of backpacking, okay. 1590 Here we go. spent five months in Italy. At the end of his time in Italy, he joined up with a pole, a Frenchman and two Englishmen and got her this truck and got her an Italian merchant visit vessel to travel throughout the Mediterranean. He had a bunch of adventures in Crete. He nearly drowned when a desire for good London beer, left him unconscious in the water under the boat
Rod 10:49
got pissed.
Will 10:50
I think that means he got pissed. I think they found a flagon, a cask or whatever,
Rod 10:54
Kentish Ale, let's get smashed
Will 10:56
some good laughs and beer. And then they got so drunk and he fell in the water and, and nearly drowned. He was also captured by Turkish slavers and became a galley slave. You know, those like in the movies?
Rod 11:06
Old School?
Will 11:06
Yeah, old school. And they're a little bit nice. It's a little bit weird. So he was captured by the slavers. slavers were really cranky. But the fellow slaves were really super nice to Jehan, because you haven't said to them. I'm not used to this kind of work. And also he had a gammy leg. Like he walked around with the crutch. And so they said, you can have the outside or that's the easy one. The guy in the very middle. He's doing all the big poles. Yeah. And the one near the edge. It's just sort of doing the little ones.
Rod 11:29
I probably also like, you don't seem very Turkish. Oh, the slavers were Turkish? Not the slaves?
Will 11:34
Yeah, I think there was there was a bunch of people from all parts of Europe on the boat. So there's there are people travelling around at this time. And people definitely got enslaved
Rod 11:43
Because I was going to make the dramatic assumption they will or people of a much darker hue.
Will 11:48
No, no, no, these are no this, this form of slavery is very much capture whoever you can, and chuck them on the horse
Rod 11:54
Equal Opportunity slave is a freedom isn't possible. For everybody. I don't know that for everybody. We're not monsters. You get to be a slave you get to be a slave, everyone gets in
Will 12:08
Possibly possibly the non racist slavery. Oh my god,
Rod 12:12
We might be slaves. But we're not racist. Fuck you. Anyway, he was enslaved for a while.
Will 12:18
He was enslaved and then there's a little weird story where he pretends to be French. Because there's a French console in town when they when they landed somewhere. And one of the old slaves said, Hang on here, buddy, I'll help you out. And it fixed him up to meet the console. And then he paid his paid his way
Rod 12:34
This slavery does sound a lot more job like than slavery.
Will 12:38
So he landed in Constantinople. And I just gonna tell you a little bit Constantinople, now Istanbul, but at the time, it was still Constantinople. But the thing to say Constantinople at the time was just super nice.
Rod 12:50
Welcome to Constantinople eh?
Will 12:52
It's nice. Again, this comes from an gold gas account after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453. So not too long ago. I mean, 100 150 years but the city's layout was reconceived by Sultan Mehmet the second incorporating elaborate gardens and parks. You could walk through the gardens of the mental hospital, admiring the fountain and promenades lined with tro roses, roses, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, carnations and many other flowers. If you want to walk through the gardens of the mental hospital,
Rod 13:21
I'm gonna go for a walk where obviously, ya know, the loony bin on the corner, like with the screaming and getting tortured, fabulous flowers.
Will 13:31
I think the point is that they they are advanced enough to have a mental hospital.
Rod 13:35
Oh, that's what I'm supposed to take away.
Will 13:37
No, no, you take what you want.
Rod 13:38
It's the nicest place in Constantinople.
Will 13:39
But you can also go for a walk there. The Sultan's themselves, they were mad for flowers. So bulbs were planted in the Sultan's gardens on a grand scale. So definitely tulips and other flowers that come from bulbs, Sultan Selim, ordered the Sheriff of Aziz to send him 50,000 tulip bulbs without delay. And similarly in 1593, Sultan Murad, which was writing this and it corrected to autocorrected to Sultan Murray. And I was like, salt and Murray. So Sultan Murad, the third wrote to a provincial governor ordering the urgent collection of 100,000 Wild hyacinth bulbs half blue half white
Rod 14:12
Damn 100,000
Will 14:13
I think the peasants did it. I don't I don't think the sheriff himself did it. I think
Rod 14:16
The scale though. Oh the scale of it.
Will 14:19
Constantinople had 80 florist shops at the time.
Rod 14:23
Get out.
Will 14:23
Yeah, I know. And under Sultan Abraham, the first chief florist was appointed.
Rod 14:28
What don't we have a chief florist?
Will 14:30
Do you know it's possible? We do, but I doubt we do. I bet I bet it's possible. I bet there are countries that do.
Rod 14:35
What a great idea. That's a lovely.
Will 14:36
There was also not not in this year, maybe 200 years later, they became so flower obsessed in the Ottoman Turkish Empire that there was a coup in the 17th century. And part of it was driven by the super expensive court spectacles focused on tulips have these grand spectacles based and the bid and the crowds were like fucking Come on. What are you doing so much? And the Grand Vizier was executed for this.
Rod 15:02
Could they not at least be edible? You bastard. Give us something we can eat after you've just thrown them aside.
Will 15:08
I'll come to that in a while. I'll come to that in a while, but our backpacker or our grand tourist, he saw this and he got the bug. He's like, this is cool. I want some flowers back home. And so here and Goldgar draws from some travel blog. The travel blog is called Beschrijvinge van een Zee ende Landt Reyse Naer de Lavante, my travels, flawless travels across the sea, and in the Levant. So he said a bunch of things about all the cool gardens he went to the Duke of Florence's Pratolino Garden, nowhere but in Constantinople. Have I seen the likes of Pratolino so it's the second best. He loved Crete, okay, there is no island in the world where so many flowers grow. As in Crete. He called it a different name, but it's great. On Mount Ida, there's there's tulips white peonies roses, yellow irises, wild cauliflowers, and you're shocked that the Greeks didn't eat the cauliflower as well.
Rod 15:47
Okay, it was chock full of awesome floral goodness. I had no idea.
Will 16:05
Yeah. And Constantinople. Of course, the Turks are great lovers of gardens and herbs. And you'd have to be a poor man not to have a little garden. They spend much money on strange plants and flowers within Constantinople is a market where they sell nothing other than flowers and herbs, which are brought back from the Black Sea and other places from Egypt and India.
Rod 16:21
That's awesome.
Will 16:22
So he's just...
Rod 16:22
It's cool. It's cool.
Will 16:25
They're beautiful. Yeah, flowers are beautiful. And at the time, mostly throughout Europe. Plants were just thought for their uses, like you could eat them or their functional medicine. And so some flowers were definitely thought of as medicine or something like that. But just they weren't really focused on the aesthetic element of flowers.
Rod 16:42
Animals.
Will 16:43
Yeah I know. And he's saying no, mix it up.
Rod 16:46
I think it's wonderful. I'm delighted by this.
Will 16:48
So I got back home to Middleburg our town in the Netherlands, the country that it is the Dutchlands,.
Rod 16:55
Dutchlands. Hollandaise.
Will 16:59
That's the people. He showed all his buddies. He's like, man, check out this sweet flowers. I got. I got I got Dogtooth violets I got Oracle's double narcissi, lilies, small tulips, crocuses, heaps more now they were blown away the whole like goddamn man. These are some cool flowers. Man.
Rod 17:16
People used to be more relaxed.
Will 17:18
Also desperate for new things as they become too desperate, desperate for new things
Rod 17:22
like the happy Dutch in the golden age. Yeah, exactly. I brought you some flowers.
Will 17:26
And I said you gotta write to Carolus Clusius.
Rod 17:29
Yes.
Will 17:29
Who was the best scientific botanist have either the age or of the local neighbourhood? It could be both.
Rod 17:36
One definitely subsumes the other but not the other way round.
Will 17:38
Yeah, no, true.
Rod 17:39
I'm the best of the neighbourhood
Will 17:40
He's definitely it was definitely a very good flower guy, very good botanist. And so, s the backpacker wrote to Clausius and attached a painting of one of his flowers, the yellow fritillary. And he said, This is blooming in my garden this year, it's now seeding beautifully. And he said, I can send you some seeds and some, some bulbs from all of these. And so they started up this, there's correspondence between him and them and all the friends that would start sending each other all sorts of flower cuttings and bulbs and seeds. So they can all start growing all of these flowers. And it's interesting what he says here, along with other beauties, which I expected yearly, which I will not fail to share with your honour liberally for our show myself that I still receive something unusual each year, Constantinople, just hold on to that unusual.
Rod 18:24
I think I can do that.
Will 18:26
Well, they use some other terms for it as well.
Rod 18:28
I'm getting an annual and unusual.
Will 18:30
This is where I just want to shift gears a bit because you had summer he was all into flowers. But all of the people throughout throughout the Netherlands, not all of the people but lots of the rich people were starting to get fully into collecting.
Rod 18:44
That's what the wealthy do.
Will 18:45
Yeah, exactly.
Rod 18:46
Cars money humans spaceships. But it's true there isn't you got nothing better to do,
Will 18:53
particularly in those times are gonna get things and there are trading power. They got boats going all over the place. And they're like, collect.
Rod 18:59
I've got more of these things than you do.
Will 19:00
There are definitely other people around Europe that were doing it but the Dutch were just like number one,
Rod 19:05
if they were the wealthiest I think they were
Will 19:07
I think it was Roland Barthes who said, man, they are just catalogers that's all they do. They catalogue and collect catalogue and he was a bit dismissive, but anyway. So they all started collecting anything unusual, exotic or strange. The rich hipster kids of Mark Middleburg began to hang out for the boats coming in every time there was a boat coming in. They don't give us anything strange. Anything exotic.
Rod 19:29
Opportunity for exploitation is enormous. I've got this. It's brown and mushy, but from a long way away. Yeah. But yeah, and I bet you've not seen one before. Not like this. Get a whiff.
Will 19:42
One of summer's friends. He wrote to close this as well. I've been on on this new ship that's coming to town to ask for something strange. And he would make sure to keep Clusius in mind if other ships full of exotica could be found. So yeah, there's a whole bunch of other people around Europe at the same time that just give us some strange stuff is in England, Duke of Buckingham said to his agent collect anything that's strange. Just I don't care what it is anything strange.
Rod 20:07
I want that job. I'm going to pay you full time wage to collect anything that's strange.
Will 20:11
Not me though.
Rod 20:12
You don't want that job?
Will 20:13
This job horrifies me really like, I would just have to throw all this stuff out.
Rod 20:17
Now you're collecting it for them, though. You don't throw it out. You hand it over. Okay. Same thing. Okay. He's not saying collect and
Will 20:23
Have you ever been to like that one of the one of the most famous collectors is the Sound Museum in London. But it's an amazing museum because it's an old house. And it's it's jammed full of as much stuff as like the Natural History Museum, not not not like the British Museum or something like that. But it's chockers. And it's chock full of stuff
Rod 20:43
That you walk in and start twitching?
Will 20:45
No, it's actually great fun to look at. It's just, I can walk out again, I just the idea of having the idea of that. Just,
Rod 20:52
I don't want it all either. But the idea that you go and use someone else's money to buy wacky shit, and then hand it over.
Will 20:58
You reckon a good job.
Rod 21:00
Oh, I can think of way worse jobs
Will 21:01
You know that there are people that are still doing that. That is that is absolutely.
Rod 21:04
If you're listening, and you need a little bit of help,
Will 21:06
I have to tell you, so there's a bunch of other people around you. But I did find one guy. He was supposed to have one of the best collections of the era. And his name was Ole Worm. And he went by the Latin name. Olaus Wormius
Rod 21:19
Of course he did. keep it classy. Ole Worm sounds derogatory. Why don't we make it Olaus Wormius?
Will 21:27
So what sorts of things were they finding? They're looking for? Like two categories. They use Latin names, but it's pretty simple. Naturalia? Natural shit and not artificialia or not? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you know, they're looking for rare species rare shells rare. So what's one one of summer's friends sent to closest little creatures off a boat? Possibly barnacles? the beak of a bird bigger than the bird itself. A fruit or other plant unknown to me. A toucan maybe. It's a very big beak, it's a very big That's a very big beak. like even a pelican still has a bigger body than the beak, depending on how you measure along. But yeah, it's very
Rod 22:04
Do you measure from the base of the beak to the bumhole?
Will 22:07
Well, they are saying, they are saying it's the beak of a bird bigger than the bird itself. They're not saying the bird is with it anymore?
Rod 22:14
Are they definitely not saying that that's, that's unambiguous.
Will 22:16
They love the bird of paradise from me. Because the packers who are sending stuff back who are like, I won't fit into the box, chop its feet off and send the bird back. It's dead. It's dead.
Rod 22:28
Eventually, definitely know that. Like, chop it's legs off throw it in a box.
Will 22:32
An animal like that. But, but then they got it back to Europe and everyone's like, fuck me. It's a bird that must fly forever. It can't stand.
Rod 22:39
It's like a shark. Like,
Will 22:41
I'm just I'm just blown away that they would go over the obvious explanation must be it keeps flying forever.
Rod 22:47
Not that its legs were removed.
Will 22:49
Pineapples, they were great seashells. They went gaga for seashells they're like there was a different one thing you know the the Rembrandt's and stuff like that. There are Rembrandt quality paintings all over the place of people with their seashell collection. where's the where's one here? i There's there's just someone that's just a collection. But I got this great guy. He's looking. He's looking so sensible and wise. Oh, and he's got like 30 seashells.
Rod 23:15
I get it. I went to a seashell museum years ago down in Batemans Bay
Will 23:20
Famous also for its Dutch masters
Rod 23:21
Fucking horrible. Like, it's just weird and freaky like you walk in and they've got seashells around the window sills and edges. They've got seashell toilet seats. Ah, and you look and I looked at it, I mean, even when, as a kid, I'm thinking, how do you dust this?
Will 23:34
You can't get the dust off it like that is that is a dusty, dusty place. I know. 17th century was a dusty world.
Rod 23:42
Like it was also it was balanced out by the poo and other such things.
Will 23:45
Why were they doing all this? There's, there's a bunch of reasons I'll come to in a second. So one of the most famous collections of the time, were bought by the brothers, Gerard and Jan Reynst, so they didn't build it up painstaking. painstakingly building up is good. You know, you can show all the story. I got this from where yeah, you know, I fought some slavers too. They just bought the whole lot from a Venetian nobleman, as a tool for social enhancement, like...
Rod 24:08
Collector of collections.
Will 24:10
Yeah I know, it's like, come over and check out our cool stuff. And and they got it like the the wife of the Prime Minister, or the stadtholder came over and was like, Yeah, this is really cool. And so that was one of the I mean, that's one of the most important functions of these collections is when people come over to your house, you can look wise, young, rich and powerful, and have a great knowledge of the world. And check out my stuff,
Rod 24:30
Because you don't have stuff. And the provenance is irrelevant. I have the stuff.
Will 24:34
It's better if you can explain it as you've got stories with it all. Way better. Yeah. But if you've got the stuff people like, cool, that's what that is.
Rod 24:41
He hasn't got a story, but have you seen his stuff?
Will 24:43
That is one hell of a pineapple,
Rod 24:46
$1 for every time I've heard that,
Will 24:47
oh, you know, this, this this tradition obviously kept going for a long time, like, or a mermaid or something like that. You know, when they're selling fake mermaids?
Rod 24:55
We're still we're still doing it now.
Will 24:56
Are we? fake mermaids?
Rod 24:58
No, but collecting dumb shit
Will 25:00
But in all of this, as I said, there's there's two key points. First is that the Dutch were just the bosses at this, they were just so good at collecting because they were on the coast, they were rich. And they probably had this mentality at that point just to go, let's catalogue everything. So they're just collecting like crazy. Yeah. And the second is tulips, tulips were kind of special day hit the mark in a way that really went above everything else. And so this comes to what happened in 1637.
Rod 25:27
Look Tulips are a cool flower, I like to like Tulips, and so many colours, at least nowadays,
Will 25:32
that's part of it. So it's a bit tricky to say what actually happened, because, well, it's not any more thanks to Anne Goldgar. And the work that she's done, but for a whole long time, as she articulates it was just a whole bunch of rumours, propaganda and made up stuff about the tulip bubble that happened in 1637. Okay, but I'm gonna go through one of the most famous accounts, which is from this Scottish journalist in 1841. You are so well read, you are scholarly. This one's fun because it is chock full of wholesome episodes in there. The book is called Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. And he goes through a whole bunch of things where, like, it's sort of an early crowd psychology, and he goes through heaps of examples, and he gets some stuff right and a lot of stuff wrong. But anyway, until the year 1634, the tulip annually increased in reputation until it was deemed a proof of bad taste in any man of fortune to be without a collection of them. They wrote backwards back then, but
Rod 26:35
Until you don't not have one of these, you are not bad at being good at this.
Will 26:40
Yes, you have bad you're bad taste if you don't have any. That's what he's saying. That's what I said. Many learned men including Pompeii, us, DeAngelis and the celebrated Lipsius of Layton officer were passionately fond of tulips, the rage for possessing them soon caught the middle classes of society. And merchants and shopkeepers, even of moderate means began to vie with each other in the rarity of these flowers, and the preposterous prices they paid for them. A trader at Harlaem was known to pay one half of his fortune for a single root.
Rod 27:07
And a tool. Alright, we'll be here all week.
Will 27:11
In 1634, the rate among the Dutch to possess them was so great that the ordinary industry of the country was neglected. And the population even to its lowest drags embarked in the tulip parade, as the mania increased prices augmented until in the year 1635. Many persons were known to invest a fortune of 100,000, florins 10, super fancy houses in the purchase of 40 roots. So divide by 10, divide by 2500 florins per bulb, which is within the recorded amount. Just Just to clarify, this is not an accurate articulation, but it's sort of got some elements.
Rod 27:45
We got the ish of it
Will 27:47
So anxious with the speculators to obtain them that one person offered the fee simple of 12 acres of building ground for the Harlaem tulip.
Rod 27:55
So they got so obsessed. They actually started to ignore their economy and stuff.
Will 27:59
That's what he reckons That's it right? So this is the popular story is that the Dutch went just mad just just just crazy for it and did nothing else.
Rod 28:09
What a symbol of wealth thought. We're so rich now that we can just get insane about something that does not sustain us
Will 28:15
There is that's a huge element to this. This is really interesting, why the tulip and that's what I really want to drill into. Yeah, why wasn't Yeah, so he's got other stories of people spending lots on them that have Amsterdam was bought for 4600 florins , plus a new carriage, two grey horses, and a complete suit of harnesses
Rod 28:31
that would have been my add on
Will 28:32
And in industrious author of the day called Munting, who wrote a folio volume. For international listeners, munting is an interesting word and so no,
Rod 28:43
Monthly No, no, no. What's your surname, Mun-ting
Will 28:48
Ah, who wrote a folio volume of 1000 pages upon the tulip mania has preserved the following list of various articles and their value, which was delivered for one single root of the rare species called the Viceroy. So this is the one that got listed at the beginning. This is for a Viceroy, which is a high end tulip. That was that two lasts of wheat four lasts of rye, four fat oxen, eight vats of wine, 12 fat sheep, all of that with the beer and the cheese and stuff like
Rod 29:13
Honestly, that just makes my mouth water. I want to I want to go to that feast.
Will 29:16
It just sound sounds fun,
Rod 29:18
Sounds tasty.
Will 29:19
And then it tells a bunch of stories about people who who lost their fortunes when people accidentally ate the tulips. So there's like a merchant who who was doing business with a sailor who had just come into town. The merchant hadn't had a tulip sitting on the mantelpiece that was worth lots. And the merchant gave the sailor breakfast of a herring and the sailor was like I'm a little bit hungry. That looks like a nice onion to pop into my pocket and eat while I walk down to the docks. First of all, good first. First of all, that looks like a nice onion.
Rod 29:50
I could do with a snack on my walk.
Will 29:52
I'll have an onion,
Rod 29:53
But also the bulbs also that made me think of Jerusalem artichokes which are you know, not potatoes. Yeah but potatoes,
Will 30:01
And clearly that they look similar to an onion, but they're not not that similar. I'm still stuck on the idea that you're like I need a snack. So we'll have an onion.
Rod 30:10
And also, not only I'll have an onion this person has an onion on the mantelpiece. They probably just forgot.
Will 30:15
That's where they keep your onion. They won't mind. This is an onion onion on mantelpiece. Yeah,
Rod 30:20
I'll just grab one because they might notice that's a 40,000 million dollar euro blob. Fuck me.
Will 30:27
Everyone got in on the action. Nobles, citizens farmers, mechanic Seaman footman made servants, even chimney sweeps and old clothes, women,
Rod 30:36
old clothes women? Yeah. Okay.
Will 30:38
I think it's women who traded off clothes. Okay. But this folly could not last forever. In 1637, and here, is pretty accurate, the price spiked. And there's famous graphs of this, you can see that like it literally, it literally spikes, so prices will track it up. And then you hit February 1637. And you get those astronomical prices, you know, the 10,000 gilders sort of thing. Well, and then they plummeted. They peaked at February three, and by February five for every nine they're going down by May, that bottomed out so
Rod 31:09
so it's like a tech bubble, but it was tulip bubble.
Will 31:11
Absolutely. It was a bubble. It was absolutely a price bubble. And it is used by lots of people as the first example of an asset price bubble. And it is, it absolutely is. And Mackay says those who are unlucky enough to have stores of tulip on hand at the time of the sudden reaction were left to bear their ruinous philosophically as they could. Those who'd made profits were allowed to keep them but the commerce of the country suffered a severe shock from which it took. It was many years it recovered. But the key thing I hold on to this, it's half true. I'll tell you what is true. after this quick break.
Brianna Ansaldo 31:49
If you're loving the wholesome show, why don't you put those wholesome feelings to good use and leave a five star review on Apple podcasts? Hey, I'm Brianna the head honcho here at Bamby Media and the new producer for these two PHD dirtbags as you probably know already right and will really, really, really suck at talking themselves up or promoting this podcast. They are useless. That's where I come in. We have big plans for this podcast and leaving a review really helps the podcasting Gods aka apple and Spotify recognise that the wholesome show is worth spotlighting. So if you're loving the show, take a moment head to Apple podcasts and leave a written review. If you're listening on Spotify, you can't actually leave a written review at this point, but you can still leave them a five star rating. If you'd like a super cool wholesome show truckers hat make sure to screenshot the review and email or tweet the guys and they'll get in contact to fling you a hat
Will 32:51
So the real story, and years after Jehan Somer came back from getting enslaved and fancy Constantinople. A society of collectors and flower enthusiasts took root in Netherlands. The word they used to call themselves was liefhebbers, which are Goldgar translates as connoisseurs. Google Translate gives it as lovers. But basically they were total hobbyist amateurs, like lovers of flowers, and they blended absolutely as hobbyist amateur scientists sort of thing. Of course they weren't professional scientists at the time.
Rod 33:27
gentle folk scientists,
Will 33:29
Typically from the upper reaches of Netherlands society. No real surprise there. Yeah. You know, it's like people that are fancy trades doctors, lawyers, apothecaries, plus nobles and princes and things like yeah, for them. Collecting was a passion, a hobby, a moment of silence, a moment to have the sweetest conversation with others. They sent each other gifts all the time. They're sending flowers to each other
Rod 33:50
Sweet gifts?
Will 33:51
Yes. And one said about his passion. How much does there rarity given knowledge to curious spirits? How many agreeable visits how many sweet conversations and how many solid discourses This is certainly the sweetest life in the world. This is basically him and his buddies strolling around the gardens looking at flowers, which is lovely,
Rod 34:09
Having sweet conversations and and good, solid discourse.
Will 34:11
But they did. And of course, no law class people know they were all they're all like, this is not for anyone below. They bring the wheelbarrows full of the manures to help us have these gardens if if we were to make beautiful flowers available to everyone. Oh, that would take away the most praiseworthy interaction to occur among men. Yes. And deprive them of the sweetest society there is among people of honour.
Rod 34:33
Yes. If everyone could do it, then everyone would be doing it and that's gross.
Will 34:37
It would take it away from us.
Rod 34:38
Gross, we must have the special flower. What if other people could do it? We're doing right now. I'm disgusted.
Will 34:43
They are the worst form of elitist hipsters. They really are. Fuck that's been core. But yes, Clusius the botanist guy. He wrote to a friend about getting totally depressed about other people getting involved this pursuit and he meant gardening will in the end, be cheap and my dear Lipsius because even merchants Yes. Even artisans low grade labourers, and other based craftsmen are getting involved in it. For they can see that rich men sometimes hand out money in order to buy some little planter others recommended because it's so rare. So they can boast to their friends that they own it. To hell with those who started all this buying and selling. Yes, I've always kept a garden sometimes for my own pleasure sometimes, so that I might serve my friends who took pleasure in that pursuit. But now, when I see all these worthless people, sometimes even those whose names I have never heard. So impudent in their requests, sometimes I feel like giving up my pastime altogether,
Rod 35:30
One must lie down now and take an opium tincture.
Will 35:34
I'm so glad that they are exploring the world, but they are so precious that they don't want other people to
Rod 35:40
What if that fucker saw it too?
Will 35:42
So why do they love tulips.
Rod 35:44
That's right. Just just before we get to that, which is very important. Luckily, that doesn't happen anymore. It is very, like thank God we move past that. Exclusivity for its own sake. Delicious.
Will 35:55
Fuck me humans, like, like.
Rod 35:58
Could ya not
Will 35:59
just just don't just maybe go, I really enjoy it. It'd be cool. If anyone else enjoys it. I'm not gonna force it on anyone. But really cool. Get in on it. It'd be nice.
Rod 36:08
Do you know what would make this worse. If anyone else did it. I want them to envy me for it, though. Let's be clear, I want them to know I do it and then want to do it. But if they do it, I frickin hate. It disgusts me.
Will 36:22
Okay, first of all the liefhebbers when when tulips first of all, they love them all equally. So you know, early on, you could see them writing about how lovely all the flowers are an all tulips are But gradually, they started developing a hierarchy.
Rod 36:34
Of course they did.
Will 36:35
And tulips tulips actually are great at this, because they come as you said before, in so many colours, and so many varieties. And the varieties are kind of spontaneous.
Rod 36:45
Well but the base shape unless I'm wrong is pretty much the same. Yep. So it's accounting version, there's a baseline standardisation.
Will 36:52
There's actually like the Turkish ones a bit more pointy. And the Dutch ones are a bit more, a bit more bowl-ish, but
Rod 36:58
The pointy Turks and the bowl-ish Dutch, something like that.
Will 37:01
But yeah, basic shape, certainly in the Dutch jobs, or coming that sort of way. But the thing is, you can have varieties, different colours, but also like striations and stuff like that you can have streaks and yeah, and some of the pictures I've seen
Rod 37:13
No that's tacky
Will 37:14
...photos I've seen of some of these shorts that beautiful, they're they're amazing, vivid colours. But the thing is that of course, you can then decide which ones are rare because they technically are
Rod 37:26
How to decide that?
Will 37:27
And when you've got a collection, and you're like, everyone can come over to my place and check out this variety. Then people like fuck, you've got an admiral Grebber or they named them all after like famous people like that. They give them all like really tough
Rod 37:40
Famous men
Will 37:41
Admirael Grebber, Bruyn Purper da Costa, Generael de Goyer, Duck van Schapestyen
Rod 37:47
is the giant Keith monster tulip.
Will 37:50
Or so actually, actually, all of these names are from tulips that had their portraits painted. And then they put the name next to it. They're like, Ah, this is the Paragon Casteleyn, or the Geel en Root van Leyden, they would love paintings of them as well to show I had this tulip this was in my tulip collection
Rod 38:05
God and the wealthy have a lot of time
Will 38:07
I know, oh my god,
Rod 38:09
I woke up this morning, I thought, there's nothing I have to do. Let's find something really obscure and expensive
Will 38:15
Portrait guy paint my tulip
Rod 38:17
Paint my flower. And we have an episode nine carry on.
Will 38:26
They thought, okay, the rarer they are, if you've got if you've got like a variation that's rare and different. It's gonna be worth more. And first of all the hobbyists were like, Okay, it's just, it's classier and cooler. But then, of course, money got attached to it, that they started experimenting to see if they can make it happen. And then cut Bobs in half and try and squeeze them together to get half and half.
Rod 38:46
That's what I do. I do that with cars. You get two different cars and you band together until they become one Melange and you do it with dogs to your cut dogs in half and you get these hybrids.
Will 38:58
So yeah, over the over the first few years of the 1600s, the liefhebbers, the hobbyists are loving this. Yeah, but gradually, you get a couple of people saying Hang on, if they're paying little bits of money for it, maybe we can get involved and so it starts spreading. And there's another group called the bloemists, who start who starts appreciating the beauty and value but they also start seeing tulips in more monetary terms
Rod 39:19
As a commodity
Will 39:20
Yeah, as a commodity, and filthy previously gifts. But now a commodity. Now the liefhebbers were not above this, they would still pay they would pretend they didn't but they would
Rod 39:29
One does not get involved. One totally gets involved. The liefhebbers they were really sad and you know, they didn't want the poor people getting involved or the rest of us and when they did. Being a liefhebbers, was not what it used to be. Most of the old liefhebbers are dead. The rest only have common flowers except for tulips. Here in the Netherlands so many idiots can be found who in the gardens can praise this flower alone so that they're like fucking all these new people coming and they're really pissed at them.
Will 39:54
But you but you only understand one tulip, idiot.
Rod 39:57
So they're getting more and more valuable. That sort of gradually throughout the 1610 1620 1630s. And we know this because the Dutch catalogue everything they had receipts we can look at and go God looked at all the receipts here, but also there's evidence of tulips getting stolen more and more so Clusius. He had robberies every year, nearly in 1581 His servant disappeared, along with some very important plants were printed and sold, along with some chest of bulbs that turned up for sale in Antwerp with the bulbs labelled in the servants own handwriting. He saw some of his flowers turn up in the gardens of an aristocratic Viennese lady, which I if you go if you go to someone's garden, and you're like, fuck me, those are my flowers, just fucking You nicked my buds? Like, it sounds a bit like, I've heard pot used to be in towns like the one we're in right now really?
Will 40:49
Like you would be getting no stealing it. But that is for use, as opposed to aesthetics, aesthetics, aesthetics is used. Yeah, no, absolutely. But yeah,
Rod 40:58
I know what you mean, like, but the idea apparently you can use for your medicinal issues.And that's true. It's what I've heard.
Will 41:03
But they would be because you'd know so well. That's my Viceroy, right? Or that's my No one else has the peppermint striped Candycream. The General Striped peppermint stiped candycream. can generally that's true.
Rod 41:12
Yes, yes,
Will 41:13
Viceroy candy cream
Rod 41:14
The Commodore
Will 41:15
And so they look at they go. What do you do? And that's that was mine. And as I mentioned before fraud, Cornelius double. But all accounts agree. In February 16 37, the market peaked and reached those astronomical prices. And then it collapsed. So the question that I wanted to ask is what what caused it what's going on here? Now
Rod 41:36
Big tulip? The Walmart of tulips?
Will 41:40
It must be it must be. So the you gotta get rid of the simplistic taste because Mackays account is it's just a madness. Yeah. Which is
Rod 41:47
Oh thing is, everyone went nuts. Yeah. Cool. Well done, mate. Thanks. You are an analyst and a scholar of great repute. Well done.
Will 41:56
The second one. That's, that's kind of simplistic. It's it's the it's true. Yeah. But it's not. It doesn't tell us enough is that it's capitalism. You know, this is. So now the Dutch Republic at the time, this is like baby capitalism. And this is where capitalism first really emerged are capitalism.
Rod 42:10
The enfant of capitalism?
Will 42:11
Yes, yeah. They're trading. They're cataloguing. They're doing all of this kind of stuff. So this is capitalism's baby steps. And suddenly, they have what capitalism does has bubbles. And so that's true. But
Rod 42:24
Right, the ability to grossly inflate something that's not necessary?
Will 42:28
Yes.
Rod 42:28
But highly desirable.
Will 42:29
Yes.
Rod 42:30
Then you get some kind of squeeze on supply. So demand is going up supplies going down or supply is getting weirder.
Will 42:37
Capitalism.
Rod 42:38
I'm just like Trotsky? Piketty
Will 42:40
Look at you. Trotsky Piketty.
Rod 42:42
I understand the economic niches.
Will 42:44
But again, I think that's it's like, Yes, but why then why tulips? Yeah, what's going on here? Goldgar did did a good account here. She went into it and dived into all the archives and looked at Okay, so what's going on here? The first thing to say is that it absolutely wasn't all of the Netherlands. In fact, it was it was fuck all people. So when Mackay is like merging all of the Netherlands went mad is like no, no, no, no, no. So she got numbers here. And of course, not all transactions are recorded, and it doesn't have a perfect count. But yeah, but just the ballparks change the story enormously. Right? So there are 120,000 people living in Amsterdam at the time. And that was a while ago, just 60 people were buying and selling flowers. Yeah, it's a bunch of it's a bunch of rich friends who are doing it more in Haarlem. So Haarlem had 42,295. But it's still it's it's it's a small network of friends.
Rod 43:35
Social media man
Will 43:36
It's similar to you know, not everyone is doing crypto.
Rod 43:40
What?
Will 43:40
Not everyone back then not everyone is trading in NFT's. And so if in 200 years time, someone was right, the history of today and say, everyone was in it.
Rod 43:49
Everyone was Dogecoin insane?
Will 43:51
I would be like, No, that's okay. Yes. The other evidence is
Rod 43:55
Can I clarify in 200 years time. That's what you'll be saying.
Will 43:58
Yes, I know.
Rod 43:59
You're wrong.
Will 43:59
I won't be I won't be probably around. Because I don't I don't think I should live that long.
Rod 44:04
Why not?
Will 44:04
I know.
Rod 44:06
You're a man.You're a gift to humankind cause
Will 44:07
Not unless everyone can normalise everyone can beautiful. Even then I'm not sure because I think I'd be stealing from my children. Oh, no one's owning this voice.
Rod 44:17
Because you feel nervous. They can live a long time as well. They want you around
Will 44:22
Piketty says that what you need to do is rotate capital, then it's fine.
Rod 44:25
I don't have to die to do that.
Will 44:27
Traditionally, yes. In his version, no.
Rod 44:29
Yay. Piketty
Will 44:31
Hey that's true
Rod 44:31
Trotsky, Piketty.. Well done, because the idea the only way to rotate capital is to die new.
Will 44:36
The other thing you can see is there's a whole bunch and this is just like crypto as well. Yeah, there was a whole bunch of satirical songs going around laughing laughing at the tulip people. Oh, if I had $1 for satirical songs about crypto I've heard Oh, no, there's a great one
Rod 44:48
by Beyonce?
Will 44:49
No, that's a great one. It was it's a TikTok. When you mentioned mentioned NFT one more time and it's guaranteed we're not fucking tonight. It's done in a much, much more singsong voice than that. But
Rod 44:57
That was beautiful man. I was going to tap along.
Song 45:00
Mention NFTs one more time. And it's guaranteed we're not fucking tonight.
Will 45:08
But there's satirical songs going back towards people alive. And you guys are inside this, that's fucked. But you can see in the small networks, people that sort of trusted each other. They were high, high networth, high status. They trusted each other. And they all valued the same sorts of things. They valued this idea of being seen to be worldly, knowledgeable, having money to spend, you know, throw in a few little things like, in the year before, the plague killed, maybe 20% of the town. So all of these people inherited a whole bunch of money, all of a sudden, suddenly, you're like, Oh, we can throw money.
Rod 45:47
How much money you got? I got tulip money, bitches. I got tulip money.
Will 45:51
So yeah, so look, it was a small group of people. Yeah. And in the end, they spent money that they probably all had or weren't too worried about. Yeah, they were much richer than that. And they were trading to get things that they valued within that community. Yes, there was a whole bunch of people who did not value that at all. But it's something that was a marker of their worldliness, their knowledge, their status. And they're like, what is what is done about this? Yes, there was a bubble. You know, it spiked, though. They were thinking it would go
Rod 46:18
and I think you so is people who did not value it, it's probably more people who were not in a position to be able to value
Will 46:24
Absolutely, absolutely. There were some poor people getting involved. And they were at the bottom end of the market, you know, this idea that oh, we can cash it on this.
Rod 46:31
So can I have one of them brown shit tulips? I'll give you a one of my 19 children for exactly they may leave before this transaction is over.
Will 46:38
But it's a small thing. And here's the thing, you know, Mackay is like it took years. They recovered. It's a blip. It's not even a blip. It's a nothing on the radar. All of the value just got translated inside the Dutch economy. None of it. None of it got sent outside, though there was no dint. Yeah, it's still it still was some sort of an event and still was some sort of crisis. And this is the thing that I think is really interesting, saying it's capitalism is missing half of the point.
Rod 47:03
It's, it's an easy throw away
Will 47:05
But it's it's like, what does it say about, about how people value things about the knowledge they've gotten and everything that's going on? And I think it's really worth thinking, you know, how does this apply to crypto and NFT's now? Crypto has environmental consequences, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. But if they lose their money, what's the skin off my nose?
Rod 47:24
Sorry Mark, but it's also I agree with that. And I'd add, it's also, like, Absolutely, like symbolic or emblematic of how history gets done. What was the biggest noisest and waves thing? We capture that? We write about it? And everyone goes, oh, let's generalise like crazy. That's it. Every burger was doing it. Yeah.
Will 47:43
So all of Mackay stuff was built off the satirical songs. And, and so and all of so much. So many of the histories that have talked about tulip mania have been based on Mackay stuff. So people are like, Oh, the country went totally mad.
Rod 47:57
Because blink 182 and the Sex Pistols sang about it. That's exactly what the late 20th and early 21st century was like. I'm Mackay.
Will 48:05
I feel like Blink 182 would be pretty accurate description of
Rod 48:08
Course you do because you lived through it though. You know, historian.
Will 48:10
There's a nice little epilogue to this story. Ever since tulip mania, the Dutch have remain tulip obsessed, like love them. Still still all about them. They still grow 90% of the world's tulips. And in World War Two, button World War Two, two things changed. First, tulip farming stopped because you know, don't farm tulips in a war being killed and shit. Yeah, one. Second is the Dutch were starving because the Nazis were stealing all their food and super rationed. So the Dutch government looked around to the huge stockpile of unplanted tulip bulbs, and said Hang on, they're nutritious and energy dense, so they began selling tulip bulbs in grocery stores and publishing recipes in magazines. recipes included drying and milling the bulbs to make flour for bread tulip soup, and boiled chocolates. Audrey Hepburn, who grew up in Belgium, remembers eating tulips to survive in the Netherlands.
Rod 49:04
Audrey Hepburn?
Will 49:05
Yeah. Today, many still eat tulip bulbs in their flowers to celebrate the harvest season. The bulbs are described as having an onion like flavour, and the petals can taste like peas, cucumbers, or nothing depending on the tulip variety.
Rod 49:17
Well tonight I'm gonna have tulip. I don't know risotto.
Will 49:21
Australia's not a starving place right now?
Rod 49:23
Not right now. The one thing I'm not suffering from is not enough food. Or other nutrients. Sorry, calories. That's wacky I'm a fan. I'm a fan like to freaking gorgeous and beautiful, huge fan,
Will 49:36
Just to talk about the sources. So as I said Anne Goldgar's book Tulip Mania is just awesome. A couple of other articles by her including one on the conversation. Charles Mackay it's worth reading his memoirs of extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. It's got some cool stuff in there. A couple of other articles one on bloom effects the history of eating tulips and the tulip mania art journal. And of course I don't care about your crypto boy.
Rod 49:57
Of course, of course.
Will 50:01
Wholesome Show is a show that gazes adoringly at the whole of science.
Rod 50:08
We can do that the moment we push stop.
