I’m fresh back from two weeks in Holland, the land of tulips & windmills. We often don’t think much about tulips when they show up in the floral section of the local grocery store every spring, but they have a more dramatic history than some other flowers.

Tulips originated in 10th century Persia. Over time the colorful flower made its way into the Ottoman Empire where in 1554 Ogier de Busbecq, the ambassador from the Holy Roman Empire to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent, sent tulip bulbs and seeds to Vienna. From there, tulip bulbs were sent to Augsburg, Antwerp and Amsterdam.

The word tulip, by the way, comes from the Turkish word for turban. Titian’s portrait of Suleiman on the right illustrates the connection.

At the end of the 16th century, botanist Carolus Clusius developed tulip bulbs that could tolerate the harsh conditions in the Netherlands. Soon, tulips became an extremely popular status symbol, in part due to the deep color of the flowers’ petals.

Holland was in its Golden Age, when one voyage to the East Indies could bring home a 400 per cent profit, and tulips became a coveted luxury item. Tulips only bloom for about a week in April and May. But from an economic perspective, the bulbs are the important part of the plant. From June to September tulip bulbs can be uprooted and moved. During this time, actual purchases of the bulbs took place. During the rest of the year, tulip traders could speculate on the next harvest by signing what were called forward contracts to buy tulip bulbs at the end of the next season.

Tulip Mania

In November 1636, the price of common tulip bulbs increased to the point that any bulb could fetch hundreds of guilders. The Admiral van der Kijck sold for 1,045 guilders on February 5, 1637. In comparison, a skilled artisan at that time earned 300 guilders annually.

Traders conducted their speculative business in taverns through transactions described as windhandel [wind trade]. No bulbs changed hands; only contracts. By 1637, some contracts changed hands as much as five times, but in February 1637, the situation changed and the price of bulbs collapsed. A specific cause of the collapse is unknown, but some accounts say losses began on February 3 when an auctioneer could not find willing buyers for forward contracts, even though he dropped the price.

One account* suggests prices for bulbs continued to rise because speculators intended to resell the contracts to claim their profit. But eventually, someone had to actually take possession of the bulbs. In February 1637 the scheme failed because prices were too high — demand for forward contracts fell, and speculation in tulips, no matter how grand, stalled. Investors could not move their contracts and had to accept the bulbs.

Today, there are 150 species of tulips. The Netherlands continues to be the world’s largest producer of commercial tulip bulbs, producing up to 3 billion bulbs annually. In the United States, tulips are sold more than any other flower. American tulip festivals abound. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, Washington is the largest tulip festival in the United States. As it happens, Washington State is the largest tulip growing state in the United States with about 1,000 acres of tulips and daffodils grown in Skagit Valley.

Below: Tulip Field in Wieringermeer, north of Amsterdam.

Windmills & Land Reclamation at Schermerhorn

While speculative investors chased tulip bulbs, others investigated how to reclaim arable land from lakes called polders. The Schermeer was the last lake to be reclaimed.

Between 1633 and 1635, 52 windmills were constructed to drain Lake Schermer. It took two years to drain the lake which covered over 18 square miles with a depth of just over 13 feet. Two years after that, the new agricultural land was ready for planting.

The iconic windmills yesteryear have been replaced by modern wind turbines, but a percentage of traditional windmills remain operational in case of emergency. Keeping the land dry requires constant pumping powered by wind.

The Schermer Museum Mill replicates life in the windmill. The miller never had a day off. When he wasn’t adjusting the mill’s sails, he hired himself out as a day laborer. Cooking was done over an open fire. Two box beds accommodated an entire family, and everyone slept in a semi-sitting position. Drinking water came from the rain; the toilet was outside. Dutch windmills have a romantic image, but life within them was hard.

Dutch windmills grew in international popularity in 1928 when they became the national symbol at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

Gallery of Tulips

I don’t expect to be near a windmill next spring, but I’m sure tulip blossoms will once again emerge from the soil.

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*Charles Mackay. “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” 1841. Since the 1980s other economic historians have reached different conclusions.

Illustrations & A Few Sources

Author in front of Schermer Museum Mill, Portrait of Suleiman the Magnificent by Titian c.1530, De Tulipenwindelhandel by Johannes Hinderiknus Egenberter 1837, Viceroy Tulip, Tulip Fields-Photo by Author, Windmill at Schemer Museum-Photo by Author, Broekslootmolen from the painting “A view of The Hague from Rijswiji, 1765 by Paulus Constantijin la Fague, poster for 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, Gallery of Tulips Photos by Author. Tonneli Grübetter. “Why Washington State is the Tulip Capital of the USA.” Flower Power Daily. Cecilia Rodriguez. “Tulip Mania and the Multimillion-Dollar Industry Behind the World’s New Most Popular Flower.” Forbes. April 16, 2023. Museum Mill in Schermerhorn.

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