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The new tulipmania

Dimos Andronoudis24 October 2025|

When Dutch traders began swapping tulip bulbs in the winter of 1636, they were not cultivating mania so much as cultivating a market — one that grew faster than the flowers themselves. A bloom that lasted only a few days each spring had become a collectible, prized for its symmetry and rarity. What followed has been described as mass delusion, but was rather a kind of social experiment in how value forms, and ultimately unravels, when enthusiasm becomes a currency of its own. Prices for bulbs rose quietly through autumn before taking flight, soaring to 23 times their original price by the new year. Then, as quickly as the excitement had formed, it disappeared. The turning point came in early February 1637, when a routine Haarlem auction drew no bids. A few unpaid contracts circulated, confidence wavered, and the market froze. Much of the trade involved forward contracts — paper promises to buy or sell later. What had looked like liquidity