The Role of Art in the Tulipmania Speculation during the Dutch Golden Age

Abstract

Since 1929 there have been a number of economic “bubbles” involving large amounts of money invested in schemes that promise great financial returns and then collapse. As recently as January 2021, a bubble with GameStop investments was in the news. The value of the company had surged from $2 billion to $24 billion in just a few days, driven not by brokers or investment companies, but by individuals with little or no experience in the stock market. Reporters compared it to the first alleged bubble, “Tulipmania,” which took place in the Netherlands in 1636-7. This was a country with a new form of government and a thriving economy that included stock trading which then became a center for growing an exotic imported flower. Accounts of the event that were written much later maintained that it caused financial ruin to a large number of people of both low and high social levels. But how would those involved have learned of the investing or that tulips were valuable? A major mechanism was another now famous part of Dutch culture: art that included printed works, paintings, and decorative motifs of the tulip.