In 1636, a tulip bulb could be exchanged in Holland for 4,600 guilders, a new carriage, two gray horses and a full harness.
The British Charles Mackay explains it in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowdsfirst published in London in 1841 and edited in Spanish as Mass delusions. The tulip mania and other famous financial bubbles.
For a copy of semper augustus, a rare bicolor variety, more than 5,200 guilders were paid, a real fortune for the time. Shortly after, its price plummeted and many went bankrupt.
The tulip is a bulbous root lily native to the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. They arrived in Europe in the 16th century, and today there are about 150 species and more of 500 varieties. More than half of those grown in the world come from the Netherlands, where they flourish. from mid-March to mid-May. The 50 kilometers that separate Haarlem, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, and Leiden are known as the Bloembollenstreek (Flower Road), and these days they turn the Dutch countryside into a sea of tulips.
Another essential appointment with the Dutch spring is the Keukenhof park, which has just opened its doors and can be visited, until May 21, in the town of Lisse, half an hour by train from Amsterdam. They are planted there every year more than seven million flower bulbs.
This season is dedicated to the Dutch Golden Age and the work of artists such as Johannes Vermeer or Rembrandt, represented in a 250-square-meter mosaic made up of more than 100,000 tulips, hyacinths, lilies, daffodils Y crocuses.
Photos: Keukenhof Park / Holland Tourism.
Source: EL PAIS