I was reading a book on flower history and found out tulips were once more expensive than houses in Amsterdam.

The book said during the 1630s tulip craze, a single bulb of the 'Semper Augustus' variety sold for 10,000 guilders, which was more than a nice house on a canal. I always knew they were a big deal, but that price is just wild to me. Do you think any modern flower or plant could ever get that kind of crazy value again?

3 comments

3 Comments

nora_taylor792mo ago

Actually used to think those old stories about tulip mania were just made up or exaggerated... like a fun myth. But seeing that exact price for one bulb compared to a house really makes it real. The whole thing was a bubble, right? People just lost their minds over something that grows in the dirt. Can't see that happening again with a normal flower now, since we know how it ends. Maybe some super rare, lab-made plant could get a crazy price tag, but not from regular people buying and selling bulbs at the market.

thea_mitchell202mo ago

My history prof showed us a contract from 1637 for a single Viceroy bulb. Price was listed as 2,500 guilders, same as a nice canal house. People absolutely lost it.

margaret_kelly552mo ago

It's hard to picture a common flower reaching that level again. The tulip mania was a perfect storm of newness, status, and pure speculation. Today's information moves too fast for that kind of bubble to build around a physical object you can just grow. The closest modern equivalent is probably digital, like crypto or certain NFTs. A plant would need to be impossible to copy and have some wild cultural cachet, which seems unlikely. We've all seen how that story ends.