Tulipomania (33 page)

Dutch savings
Temple,
Observations
, p. 102.

The gambling impulse
Deursen,
Plain Lives
, pp. 67–68, 105–06; Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 306–07, 347; Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, p. 76.

The course of the mania is set out best in E. H. Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland: De Tulpomanie van 1636–37 en de Hyacintenhandel 1720–36
(Amsterdam, 1942). A general summary of events, with rather more interpretation, can be found in Nicolaas Posthumus, “The Tulip Mania in Holland in the Years 1636 and 1637,” in W. C. Scoville and J. C. LaForce, eds.,
The Economic Development of Western Europe
, vol. 2 (Lexington, Mass., 1969), pp. 138–49.

Hoorn
Israel,
Dutch Republic
, pp. 317–18.

The tulip house
Damme,
Aanteekeningen Betreffende
, pp. 23–24. According to van Damme, the house was renovated in 1755, at which time the stone tulips were inscribed with some memorial to the mania. At some time in the 1880s or early 1890s, the house was demolished, and the tulips were purchased by J. H. Krelage, one of the leading tulip growers of Haarlem, and set in the wall of his library. Van Damme, incidentally, describes the chronicle from which he drew many of his details as Velius’s, but in fact Velius’s work runs no further than 1630. He must therefore have meant a continuation of the original chronicle. The reliability of this work is not entirely clear. From the context in which the chronicler mentions the tulip house it seems the passage may not be contemporary.

The development of the tulip mania
Posthumus, “The Tulip Mania in Holland,” pp. 140–42; Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 42, 49–52.

A contemporary chronicler
Aitzema,
Saken van Staet en Oorlogh
, p. 504. Like many of the prices cited by historians of the mania, van Aitzema’s seem to be drawn from the fictionalized
Samenspraecken
, three pamphlets published
in 1637 that purported to record conversations between a tulip dealer and his friend. See chapter 11 for details.

Generael der Generaelen van Gouda
Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 35, 49. Schama says that Gouda was one of the cheapest and least spectacular varieties, which is not correct.

Later prices quoted for Semper Augustus
Ibid., pp. 32–33, 68; Garber, “Tulip-mania,” p. 537; Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, pp. 8–9.

Soap
See Israel,
Dutch Republic
, p. 347.

Land in Schermer polder; the merchant lover
Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, p. 30, citing one of the pamphlets published during the mania.

Anecdotes of a sailor and an English traveler
The story of the sailor is recorded by J. B. Schuppius as a memory of his youth in Holland, according to Solms-Laubach,
Weizen und Tulpe
, p. 76. It was famously retold in considerably embellished form in Mackay,
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
, p. 92. Mackay tells the (unreferenced) story of the English traveler. Peter Garber has drawn attention to the fundamental implausibility of these anecdotes, see Garber, “Tulipmania,” p. 537 & n.

Dutch recession
Israel,
Dutch Republic
, pp. 314–15.

Weavers
Those who note the predominance of linen workers among the tulip maniacs include Posthumus, “Tulip Mania in Holland,” p. 143.

Sales by bulb and by the bed
Ibid., p. 141.

Trades of Jan Brants and Andries Mahieu
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 13–14.

Sales between April and August
All the early records of tulip trading are dated between April and August. Ibid., pp. 11–15; Posthumus, “Tulip Mania in Holland,” p. 141.

The windhandel
Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 358–59.

The futures trade
’t Hart, Jonker, and Zanden,
Financial History of the Netherlands
, pp. 53–54; Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 339, 349–50; Vries and Woude,
First Modern Economy
, p. 151; Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 338–39; Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, p. 262.

Bans on futures trading
’t Hart, Jonker, and Zanden,
Financial History of the Netherlands
, p. 55.

Trading by the ace
Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 46–48.

Gerrit Bosch
Alkmaar notarial archive, vol. 113, fol. 71vo–72vo, July 23, 1637 (copy in the Posthumus Collection, Netherlands Economic History Archive).

Profit on spice voyages
Israel,
Dutch Republic
, p. 320.

David de Mildt
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 16.

Henrick Lucasz. and Joost van Haverbeeck
Ibid., pp. 19–20.

Jan Admirael
Ibid., pp. 17–18, 21–22.

The value of a bulb
The best data come from the auction held at Alkmaar in February 1637, where several bulbs of the same variety, but of different weights, were sold to the same bidders in the course of a single day. See Damme,
Aanteekeningen Betreffende
, pp. 92–93.

Tulip companies
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 26, 32–36.

Bulbs per ace and per thousand aces
See Damme,
Aanteekeningen Betreffende
, pp. 92–93.

They came from all walks of life
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1926), pp. 3–99.

Bulbs bought to plant and trade
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 24–25.

The Samenspraecken
These three important pamphlets were reprinted in ibid., pp. 20–99. They have been discussed by Krelage in
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 70–73, and in
De Pamfletten van den Tulpenwindhandel
, pp. 2–4; and also by Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” pp. 25–27; Jacob,
Tulips
, pp. 10–12; Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, pp. 13–15; Herbert,
Still Life with a Bridle
, pp. 57–58; and Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 359–60. None of these accounts, incidentally, agrees with any of the others on precisely how the information in the
Samenspraecken
should be interpreted, mute testimony to the remarkable obscurity of the text of the original pamphlets.

Payments in kind
As noted, these examples too derive from the
Samenspraecken
. See Bulgatz,
Ponzi Schemes
, p. 97.

Aert Ducens
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 38. In 1643 van de Heuvel’s wife appeared before a notary and confirmed that this agreement had been canceled after the tulip market crashed.

Jeuriaen Jansz
. Ibid., pp. 27–28. In this case the seller’s name is given as “Cresser,” but the records of the mania are full of misspelled surnames, and it is almost certainly Creitser who was meant.

Cornelis Guldewagen
Ibid., pp. 61–65, 72–74.

Abraham de Goyer
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1934), pp. 231–32.
Null and void
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 85.

Cases of deceit and fraud
Segal,
Tulips Portrayed
, p. 12; Murray, “Introduction of the Tulip,” p. 25.

Everything that could be called a tulip
Aitzema,
Saken van Staet en Oorlogh
, p. 504.

My account of Dutch tavern life has been pieced together from numerous secondary sources, the most significant being those of van Deursen and Schama. The English travelers Moryson, Brereton, and Mundy all make some mention of the subject, and their personal experiences add color to the general remarks of the social historians. Haarlem’s brewing industry is described in S. Slive, ed.,
Frans Hals
(The Hague: SDU, 1990). The taverns of Haarlem are touched on by S. Groenveld et al.,
Deugd Boven Geweld. Een Geschiedenis van Haarlem, 1245–1995
(Hilversum: Verloren, 1995), which is more rewarding than an English translation of its title (“Virtue Above Violence”) might suggest, and the brothels of the Haarlemmerhout are rather tentatively passed over by Temmininck et al. in the even more unenticingly titled
Haarlemmerhout 400 Jaar. “Mooier is de Wereld Nergens.”
(Haarlem: Schuyt & Co., 1984)—“400 Years of Haarlem Wood: ‘Nowhere in the World Is More Beautiful.’” Thankfully Geoffrey Cotterell’s anecdotal history
Amsterdam: The Life of a City
(Farnborough: D.C. Heath, 1973) adds some more entertaining details about the role that food and drink played in Dutch life.

The Amsterdam stock exchange
’t Hart, Jonker, and Zanden,
Financial History of the Netherlands
, pp. 53–56; Cotterell,
Amsterdam
, pp. 85–86; Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 348–50; Brereton,
Travels in Holland
, pp. 55–56.

De la Vega on small-time traders
Cited by Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, p. 349. The descriptions of traders’ behavior date to somewhat after the mania period—to the 1680s, to be exact—and it may not necessarily have been so exaggerated in the 1630s.

Ubiquity of inns
Deursen,
Plain Lives
, pp. 101–02.

Pub names
Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, p. 202; Herbert,
Still Life with a Bridle
, p. 58.

Prostitution
Deursen,
Plain Lives
, pp. 97–100.
“Impudent whores”
Brereton,
Travels in Holland
, p. 55.

Beginnings of the tavern trade
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), p. 19.

Taverns involved in the tulip mania
Haarlem inns definitely known to have been involved in the mania include Van de Sijde Specxs (The Flitch of Bacon), De Vergulden Kettingh (The Guilded Necklace), ’t Oude Haentgen, the Toelast in the Grote Markt, and De Coninck van Vranckrijck. In Amsterdam, De Mennoniste Bruyloft (The Mennonite Wedding) also served as a center of tulip dealing. Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1927), pp. 24, 42–43, 83, and (1934), p. 233.

The Quaeckels
Cornelis Quaeckel senior was born around 1565 and married, in 1587, Trijn or Catharina Cornelisdr. Duyck. From 1609 he ran a tavern called the Bellaert in the Kruisstraat in Haarlem, but he also grew crops and tulips on an allotment near the Janspoort and on land he rented from the lord of Brederode near the castle of Huis ter Kleef. Roads leading to both locations were named Quaeckelslaan after the family. There seems to be no record that Quaeckel’s eldest son, Cornelis Cornelisz., had any involvement in the tulip trade, but he did testify in favor of the allegedly heretical painter Torrentius during his persecution in 1627. Cornelis Cornelisz. was Haarlem’s collector of taxes on soap until 1626 and lived until at least 1650. Jan Quaeckel, his tulip-trading brother, was born in 1601–02 and was buried in Haarlem on November 10, 1661. See Kurtz, “Twee Oude Patriciërshuizen,” p. 120; Haarlem Municipal Archives, notarial registers vol. 123vo; vol. 129, fol. 72; vol. 139, fol. 27vo–28; vol. 149, fol. 210; vol. 150, fols. 273–273vo, 394vo; Haarlem burial registers vol. 73, fol. 100vo. Krelage,
Bloemenspeculatie in Nederland
, pp. 134–36, gives details of the tulip species created by Cornelis Quaeckel senior.

Haarlem
Groenveld et al.,
Deugd Boven Geweld
, pp. 144, 172–74, 177.

Street lighting
Lighting—using hundreds of lamps burning vegetable oil—was eventually introduced in Amsterdam in 1670, with such success that it quickly spread to other Dutch cities and then across Europe. Israel,
Dutch Republic
, p. 681.

Peat fires
Mundy,
Travels of Peter Mundy
, pp. 64–65; Blainville,
Travels Through Holland
, vol. 1, p. 44.

Smoking
Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 194–98; Deursen,
Plain Lives
, pp. 103–04.

Weapons
Deursen,
Plain Lives
, pp. 110–11. A ban on weapons was instituted by the States of Holland in 1589, backed up in many cases by local legislation.

Paintings
Stoye,
English Travellers Abroad
, p. 294, records comments about the magnificence of the paintings to be found in Dutch taverns by the English travelers Sir Dudley Carleton (1616) and Robert Bargrave (1656).

Drunkenness and drink
Ibid., p. 162; Cotterell,
Amsterdam
, p. 73; Brereton,
Travels in Holland
, pp. 11–12.

Cost of an evening’s drinking
Fynes Moryson, traveling in 1592, paid between twelve and twenty stuivers for a meal, complaining that this high price was the result of his paying for the ale consumed by his traveling companions, who spent the evening roistering by the fire. Moryson,
An Itinerary
, pp. 89–90.

Consumption of alcohol
Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, p. 175; Schama,
Embarrassment of Riches
, pp. 191, 199.

Théophile de Viau
Cited in Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, p. 173.

Quantity of beer consumed in Haarlem
Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, p. 72, citing J. van Loenen,
De Haarlemse Brouwindustrie voor 1600
(Amsterdam, 1950), p. 53.

Number of breweries
Groenveld et al.,
Deugd Boven Geweld
, p. 176; Raaij, Kroniek, entry for 1628.

The tavern trade
Posthumus, “Die Speculatie in Tulpen” (1926), pp. 20–99; Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, p. 175.

Wine
Zumthor,
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, pp. 173–74.