We know a lot about tulips. Each man gave women bouquets of delicate spring flowers. We have also heard about the "tulip revolutions" in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. But few people know that there have been economic tulip crises in history, and the first financial pyramid is also associated with these flowers. Tulips even saved people from starvation …
Wild Asian tulips
The real homeland of tulips is not Holland, as is commonly believed, but Central Asia. To this day, wild tulips can be seen in the Tien Shan valleys, in the fields of China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Altai. And Kazakhstan is one of the key territories for the distribution of these flowers in the world. Of over 100 tulip species, 38 grow in their original form there. The most beautiful sight that I have seen in my life is the May steppe on the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, all completely covered with scarlet flowers.
Of course, the ancient steppe dwellers did not plant flower beds and flower beds - with a nomadic lifestyle it was very difficult. But they admired the spring steppes, completely covered with scarlet flowers, and composed songs and legends. It was said that the first tulip grew on the blood of the last dragon. The old men claimed that a delicate flower grows from the body of a warrior who died in battle. How many scarlet tulips are in the steppe, so many fighters laid down their lives on this field.
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For the first time, they began to cultivate wild tulips brought from the steppe regions, in Ancient Persia. The cruel and ferocious king Cambyses was very fond of roses, but he also grew other flowers in his garden, including tulips. Although the main work was done by slaves-gardeners, the king himself did not disdain to take care of plants.
Cambyses, famous for his ferocity, was anxious about flowers, and the gardeners who made the slightest mistake were punished with painful execution.
Now it is difficult to establish which species were the ancestors of the first garden plants, but, according to many scientists, these were the wild-growing tulips of Gesner and Schrenk growing in the foothills of the Zailiyskiy Alatau.
Turks were very fond of tulips, and their rulers in their gardens planted real carpets of fresh flowers. There was even a special minister of tulips at court.
At the time of night feasts in the open air, turtles with lighted candles attached to their shells were released into vast flower beds. The wandering lights among the beautiful flowers were great.
Turks called tulips "lale" and often gave their daughters this name. Lale is still the most popular female name in Turkey.
In the middle of the 16th century, the emissary of the Austrian emperor in Turkey, Olier de Busbekomé, sent a large consignment of tulip bulbs and seeds to Vienna. The director of the Vienna Garden of Medicinal Plants was the professor of botany Charles de Lecluse, who signed according to the customs of that time with the Latin name Carolus Clusius. He immediately and forever fell in love with exotic flowers and disinterestedly sent tulip seeds and bulbs to all his friends and acquaintances.
But soon his patron Emperor Maximilian II, an esthete and lover of flowers, unexpectedly died, and a zealous Catholic Rudolph II ascended the throne, not interested in botany and did not tolerate Protestants at his court.
Clusius went to Holland to Leiden University, where he had long been lured to the position of director of the botanical garden. Under his leadership, the garden became the best in Europe. Many exotic plants and flowers grew there and, of course, the favorites of Clusius - tulips.
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Tulip mania and crisis
Holland at that time, thanks to sea trade with Asia and America, was the richest country. Every day ships with silver and spices arrived at the ports, and unexpectedly quickly wealthy nobles and merchants were looking for extravagant ways to spend easy money. An exotic garden at his palace was one of those fashionable ways.
Clusius literally infected the Dutch with his passion for tulips. Insanity began in the country, complete madness, later called "tulip mania" by historians. For more than 20 years, the Dutch have managed to grow dozens of tulip varieties.
In 1625, a rare tulip bulb could cost 2,000 gold guilders. They were traded on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Haarlem and Leiden. The volume of the Tulip Exchange has reached an astronomical amount of 40 million guilders.
By 1635, the price had risen to 5500 gold per bulb, and by the beginning of 1637, tulip prices had increased 25 times. One onion was given as a dowry to the bride, three cost the same as a good house, and only one Tulip Brasserie was given to a thriving brewery. Bulb sellers made a lot of money. All conversations and deals revolved around a single subject - onions.
For example, a red tulip bulb with white veins cost 10,000 guilders, and Rembrandt was paid 1,800 for his painting "The Night Watch", which made him very happy.
Many Dutch people quit their jobs and constantly gambled on the tulip exchange. In order to buy the bulbs and resell them at a higher price, houses and businesses were laid down. The sale and resale was done many times, while the bulbs were not even removed from the ground. The fortunes doubled in a moment, the poor became rich, the rich super-rich. The first financial pyramid began to be built, which Mavrodi would envy. The tulip mafia appeared, stealing bulbs.
And on Tuesday, February 3, 1637, tulip mania in Holland ended. Moreover, unexpectedly and for hitherto unknown reasons. The auction began with the sale of inexpensive White Crown bulbs at a price of 1250 guilders per lot. Yesterday there were many who wanted to buy this lot for a much higher price, but today there were no buyers at all.
The sellers realized that all the bulbs had to be sold immediately, but there was no one. The terrible news spread throughout the city, and after a while throughout the country. Prices not only fell - the Tulip Exchange ceased to exist at once. Bulb prices have fallen a hundred times on average. Tens of thousands of people went broke and became beggars in a matter of hours. A wave of suicides swept across the country.
Beauty disease
You can understand the Dutch and their obsession with flowers. After all, those tulips were insanely beautiful, much more beautiful than the current ones. And, paradoxically, the main reason for the splendor of the flowers was that they were sick - affected by the flower mosaic virus. Because of it, white or yellow stripes mixed with strokes of different shades of pink or red appeared on the flower petals.
The variegated color of the petals is very decorative, and such tulips were valued more than monochromatic ones. But a virus is a virus. Sick plants develop poorly, produce fewer offspring and bloom later. And although they do not die, they are less viable - they can grow only in greenhouse conditions. The breeders realized that an influx of fresh "blood" is needed - wild, primitively powerful, natural. But where to get such "savages" - in Turkey and Persia tulips also domesticated and lost their primitive power.
And in the middle of the 19th century, articles and monographs of the Russian traveler Alexander Shrenk appeared, who explored vast areas of Central Kazakhstan and Semirechye. They described that in the distant Kyrgyz-Kaisak steppes and at the foot of the mountains, a huge number of wild tulips grow. Nobody breeds them, nobody cares for them, they grow by themselves and every spring they literally cover the entire steppe with a scarlet carpet.
At that time, the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden was in charge of the Swiss Eduard Regel. His son Albert was sent by the county doctor to Kuldja. Returning to St. Petersburg, he told his botanist father about the unexplored flora of Kazakhstan and Semirechye. Senior Regel began to knock money out of the treasury for a scientific expedition. As today, the then officials paid the least attention to science, and even more so to botany.
However, Regel still managed to achieve the location of influential persons, and Albert's expedition set off.
The results exceeded all expectations. Albert collected flora collections, consisting of dried plants, bulbs, seeds, and sent them by courier to St. Petersburg, where his father meticulously described and identified plants, among which there were many species hitherto unknown to science, including nine species of wild tulips. One of the species was named in honor of the younger Regel - the tulip of Albert, the other - in honor of the pioneer Alexander Schrenk, and most of the species had to be named after benefactors-officials - Kolpakovsky, Greig, Kaufman.
Thanks to the Regel family, the species of Kazakhstan tulips came to Holland, England, France, Germany and America, where they attracted the attention of breeders, becoming the progenitors of most modern varieties. 75% of all garden Dutch tulips are descendants of Greig and Kaufman tulips.
Tulips are saviors
During World War II, when famine broke out due to the blockade, the Dutch had to eat tulip bulbs. They are tough, tasteless, low-calorie, but nevertheless saved many civilians from starvation.
In general, tulips must be planted and grown: in gardens, front gardens, flower beds, greenhouses. And also these beautiful and delicate flowers should be given to women - wives, beloved friends, mothers, sisters, all women, without exception. Because both are beautiful.
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №25. Author: Eric Aubakirov