1 Tulipmania

It’s a simple law of business: if an item is scarce and many people want it, the price goes up. It happens with certain kinds of toys during the holiday season. It happens with tickets to important sports events. But could you imagine it happening to the price of tulips?

Tulips weren’t always grown in Holland; the first bulbs were transported there from the Turkish Empire in 1593. But the botanist who brought them into the country was very stingy with them, refusing to give them away or even sell them. People gradually got their hands on the bulbs, but they remained a rarity that only the rich could afford.

Tulips were so bright and beautiful that many people desired them. And so the price kept escalating. The most popular tulips of all had alternating broken stripes of two different colors. These so-called bizarre patterns, which were actually caused by a tulip virus, meant that every single tulip had a unique look. So prized were such tulips that in 1624 certain varieties of them were selling for $1,500 a bulb! A short time later that price had skyrocketed to $2,250.

Between 1634 and 1637 the market for bi-color tulips went completely berserk. Not only the rich but trade and craft people as well were furiously bidding up prices, sometimes paying for one bulb the equivalent of what it would cost to feed and clothe a small town. In fact, the highest price ever recorded for a bulb was over $400,000.

And then, as you might expect, the market collapsed. Just as in the stock market crash of 1929, many people were financially ruined. But amid the lamentations, despair, and suicides, the modest tulip continued to beautify the Dutch countryside.

1 郁金香狂热

商业界有一条简单的法则：如果一样东西稀缺且很多人想要，它的价格就会上涨。节假日期间某些玩具会出现这种情况，重要体育赛事的门票也会如此。但你能想象这种情况发生在郁金香的价格上吗？

郁金香并非一直都在荷兰种植；第一批球茎是1593年从土耳其帝国运到那里的。但把它们引入荷兰的植物学家对这些球茎非常吝啬，既不肯送人，也不肯出售。人们逐渐得到了这些球茎，但它们仍然是只有富人才能买得起的稀有物品。

郁金香色泽艳丽、十分美丽，因此很多人都渴望拥有它们，价格也随之不断攀升。最受欢迎的郁金香带有两种不同颜色交替的断裂条纹。这些所谓的奇异花纹实际上是由郁金香病毒引起的，这意味着每一朵郁金香都有独特的外观。这类郁金香非常珍贵，1624年某些品种的球茎售价达到了每个1500美元！不久之后，这个价格飙升到了2250美元。

1634年到1637年间，双色郁金香市场彻底疯狂了。不仅富人，商人和手工艺人也在疯狂抬价，有时一个球茎的价格相当于养活并供一个小镇的人穿衣吃饭的费用。事实上，有记录以来球茎的最高价格超过了40万美元。

然后，正如你可能预料的那样，市场崩溃了。就像1929年的股市崩盘一样，许多人在经济上倾家荡产。但在哀叹、绝望和自杀的氛围中，不起眼的郁金香依然装点着荷兰的乡村。