Tulipomania (35 page)

Why this case, of all cases, found its way before the Court of Holland remains unclear. But it contains several striking features. It shows how difficult it was to determine who owned the bulbs traded during the mania, even when the chain of ownership was relatively short and straightforward; evidently, even those who had owned tulips only temporarily could easily be caught up in the melee of claim and counterclaim. It also demonstrates that long after the tavern trade collapsed, there were some among the ranks of the richer traders and the connoisseurs who believed tulips were still a potentially good investment. Algeemen RijksArchief, The Hague, Civiele processtukken II B 44, records of the Court of Holland; Municipal Archives, Haarlem, Index to Heerenboek, p. 12; Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 82; Beresteyn and Hartman,
Genealogie van het Geslacht
, pp. 133–36, 219–22.
Resolutions of the cities of Holland
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 60.

Munting
Munting,
Naauwkeurige Beschryving
, p. 911.

Van Bosvelt
Municipal Archives, Haarlem, Resolution of November 5, 1637,
Aanteekeningen van C.J. Gonnet;
Bulgatz,
Ponzi Schemes
, p. 105.

Many contracts nullified
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 69.

Cases in Alkmaar
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1934), p. 240.

De Block
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 48–49.

Abraham de Goyer
Ibid., pp. 65–67.

Hans Baert
Ibid., p. 76.

Admirael and de Hooge
Ibid., p. 68.

Willem Schonaeus
As well as being a poor judge of tulips, Koster must have been something of an optimist; even after the crash in prices, he agreed to continue with the transaction, and he paid his deposit—820 guilders, about 12 percent of the purchase price—as late as May 25. By the autumn, though, he had evidently changed his mind about the wisdom of the agreement and defaulted, forcing Schonaeus to take action. See Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 71, 79. Willem Schonaeus (1600–67) lived in one of Haarlem’s best-known houses, De Hoofdwacht on the Grote Markt. See Kurtz, “De Geschiedenis van Ons,” pp. 37–38.

Cases in Haarlem
See Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 71, 79.

De Clerq
Ibid., pp. 77, 79.

Haarlem’s court of arbitration
Ibid., p. 80; Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 96–97; Bulgatz,
Ponzi Schemes
, p. 105.

Friend makers
Brereton,
Travels in Holland
, pp. 8–9, 22; Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 80; Municipal Archives, Haarlem,
Aantee-keningen van C. J. Gonnet;
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1934), pp. 239–40.

Dubbleden
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 84–85.

Van Goyen’s insolvency
It is not clear why van Goyen did not take advantage of the opportunity to settle his debts at 3.5 percent, which would have meant paying only thirty guilders. Probably the regents of The Hague did not follow their colleagues in Haarlem in setting up an arbitration panel to settle local cases.

Many of the books that were consulted for
chapter 3
were also useful here, particularly those of Mansel and Miller. Surprisingly, there seems to be no good biography of Ahmed III, but accounts of his tulip fêtes appear in numerous
secondary sources, many of which have been drawn on; the most original and useful were Arthur Baker, “The Cult of the Tulip in Turkey,”
Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society
(September 1931), and Michiel Roding and Hans Theunissen, eds.,
The Tulip: A Symbol of Two Nations
(Utrecht and Istanbul: Turco-Dutch Friendship Association, 1993). The historical background has been taken both from general histories such as Alan Palmer,
The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
(London: John Murray, 1992), and more specialist studies, including Lavender Cassels,
The Struggle for the Ottoman Empire, 1717–1740
(London: John Murray, 1966).

Mehmed IV and the tulip
Palmer,
Decline and Fall
, pp. 10, 14–15, 37; Bay-top, “Tulip in Istanbul,” pp. 50–56; Miller,
Beyond the Sublime Porte
, p. 124.

Ibrahim the Mad
During his eight-year reign, he was also noted for deflowering a virgin every Friday. See Palmer,
Decline and Fall
, p. 19; Penzer,
Harem
, pp. 188–91.

Execution might, after all, still be their lot
When court officials entered the cage to call Süleyman II (1687–91) to the throne in succession to Mehmed IV, the new sultan is said to have cried out in terrified exasperation: “If my death has been commanded, say so. Since my childhood, I have suffered forty years of imprisonment. It is better to die at once than to die a little every day. What terror we endure for a single breath.” See Inalcik,
Ottoman Empire
, p. 60.

The time of tulips
Göçek,
East Encounters West
, p. 10.

Nedim the poet
Palmer,
Decline and Fall
, p. 36; Wheatcroft,
Ottomans
, pp. 77, 79; Mansel,
Constantinople
, p. 181.

Sultan Ahmed’s flower festivals
Barber,
Lords of the Golden Horn
, pp. 109–10; Mansel,
Constantinople
, pp. 76–78, 180–81; Palmer,
Decline and Fall
, pp. 37–38; Miller,
Beyond the Sublime Porte
, pp. 124–26; Penzer,
Harem
, pp. 258–60.

General passion for tulips in Ahmed’s reign
Demiriz, “Tulips in Ottoman,” pp. 57–58; Baytop, “Tulip in Istanbul,” p. 55; Baker, “Cult of the Tulip in Turkey,” p. 235.

Eighteenth-century criteria for ideal tulips
Baytop, “Tulip in Istanbul,” p. 53; Demiriz, “Tulips in Ottoman,” pp. 57–58; Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” p. 20.

Ottoman officials’ flowers and bribes of tulips
Mansel,
Constantinople
, p. 182; Shaw,
History of the Ottoman Empire
, p. 234.

Fazil Pasha
Mansel,
Constantinople
, p. 147.

Damat Ibrahim
Palmer,
Decline and Fall
, pp. 33–35, 38.

The Sa’adabad
Ibid., p. 34; Shaw,
History of the Ottoman Empire
, p. 234; Mansel,
Constantinople
, pp. 180–81; Göçek,
East Encounters West
, pp. 51, 79; Pallis,
Days of the Janissaries
, p. 199.

The fall of Damat Ibrahim and Ahmed III
Palmer,
Decline and Fall
, pp. 38–39.

Mahmud I and the decline of the tulip in Turkey
Barber,
Lords of the Golden Horn
, p. 110; Wheatcroft,
Ottomans
, pp. 80–81.

The later history of the bulb trade is reliably covered in modern histories. The hyacinth trade is described in detail by E. H. Krelage in
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland: De Tulpomanie van 1636–37 en de Hyacintenhandel 1720–36
(Amsterdam, 1942), and the later history of the tulip by both Krelage, in
Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport
(The Hague: Rijksuitgeverijj, 1946), and Daniel Hall, in
The Book of the Tulip
(London: Martin Hopkinson, 1929).

Continuing trade in tulips
Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 97–110; Krelage,
Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport
, pp. 15–18; Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, p. 17; Mundy,
Travels of Peter Mundy
, vol. 4, p. 75; Garber, “Tulipmania,” pp. 550–53.

Aert Huybertsz
. Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 82–83.

Haarlem as the center of the later bulb trade
Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 102–04; Krelage,
Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport
, pp. 9–11.

Desiderata of van Oosting and van Kampen
Cited in Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, p. 11, and Hall,
Book of the Tulip
, pp. 48–49.

The hyacinth trade
Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 142–96, and Krelage,
Drie Eeuwen Bloembollenexport
, pp. 13, 645–55; Garber, “Tulip-mania,” pp. 553–54; Bulgatz,
Ponzi Schemes
, pp. 109–14.

A $4,000 bottle of Coca-Cola
Pendergrast,
For God, Country
, p. 211.

The history of the tulip to the present day
Krelage,
Drie Eeuwen Bloembollen-export
, pp. 15–18.

Craze for dahlias
Bulgatz,
Ponzi Schemes
, pp. 108–09. During this episode there was even talk of the propagation of blue dahlias—as much a botanical impossibility as the black tulip.

Craze for gladioli
Posthumus, “Tulip Mania in Holland,” p. 148.

Chinese spider lily mania
Malkiel,
Random Walk down Wall Street
, pp. 82–83.

Florida land boom
Bulgatz,
Ponzi Schemes
, pp. 46–75.

Municipal Archives, Haarlem
Notarial registers, vols. 120–50
Burial registers, vols. 70–76
Index to Heerenboek
Manuscript entitled
Aanteekeningen van C. J. Gonnet Betreffende de
Dovestalmanege in de Grote Houstraat, de Schouwburg op het Houtplein, het Stadhuis in de Frase Tijd, Haarlemse Plateelbakkers en Plateelbakkerijen en de Tulpomanie van 1637–1912

Stadsbibliotheek, Haarlem
Chrispijn van de Passe,
Een Cort Verhael van den Tulipanen ende haere Oefeninghe…
(contemporary pamphlet, n.p., n.d., c. 1620?)

Municipal Archives, Amsterdam
Burial registers

Algeemen RijksArchief, The Hague
Records of the Court of Holland

Posthumus Collection, Netherlands Economic History Archive
Copies of unpublished acts relating to the tulip mania from the notarial
archives of Alkmaar and Leiden

Aitzema, Lieuwe van.
Saken van Staet en Oorlogh
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