These pictures show beautiful Dutch tulip fields. Photos are from
dailymail.co.uk (first photo) and
travelstackexchange.com (second photo). The country of Netherlands is well known for its flower industry. Actually the business of growing and trading flowers is said to be one of the primary sectors of industry in the Netherlands. A very
large scale flower auction is held in Aalsmeer (the town in the province of North Holland). The organization of this auction is owned by a cooperative of 5,000 flower growers and provides a space for 2,000 buyers. Judging from this scale, this must be the world's largest auction without any doubt.
The result of the transactions done at this auction is said to affect the market prices of flowers not only across the Netherlands but also all over the world. The bottom line is that flower transactions is one of the major industries in Holland.
This country is famous for not only the primary sector of industry in growing and trading flowers but also floral decorations and flower design schools which many Japanese young ladies would like to join. We often hear the story of people who visited the Netherlands from Japan to join a local floral school for learning Dutch flower arrangements.
Some people started a flower arranging class
after getting back to Japan. On
the internet, we also find beautiful tulip fields which are designed in an
extremely large scale and very well organized
LIKE THE ONE LINKED HERE. What
is stated in the above shows the present situation of Dutch flower industry.
Looking back to the past in the 17th century before the United Stated was not
yet independent, there was an unbelievable history related to Dutch tulip
industry as stated below:
Historically
tulips was brought from Turkey to the Netherlands by one of botanists at the
end of the 16th century for the purpose of researching medicinal applications.
In the 17th century the country of Holland reached height of prosperity as seen
from the fact that Indonesia got colonized by the Netherlands and Dutch East
India Company was established in 1602 in Indonesia. The conventional humble
life gave place to luxury life and many people spent lots of money for
decorating their houses with luxury decorating items such as expensive
porcelains, pictures and precious objects from all the countries of Europe and
Asia etc. Some rich people were not satisfied with filling their houses with
luxury goods and they started ornamenting their gardens with tulips which were
more beautiful and eye catching compared with other kinds of flowers.
This
trend became popular among a limited number of rich people at the initial
stage. However it gradually spread all over the country and the demand for
tulips were getting increased. Consequently
the price of tulips started to mount all over the
Netherlands. Over the next several decades many of rich people got fevers of
buying tulips which led to speculating on the transaction of tulips. At that
time a single piece of rare
tulip bulb could sell for a value equivalent to more than $1,000 in
current U.S. dollars. Rarer type of tulips were said to have easily sold for
twice that.
This
bubble reached its height in the winter of 1636-1637. Like the bubbled economy
we experienced around the year of 2,000 in the United States, once the fever
spread across the country, people begin to believe that the bubble will last
forever and keep making investment (speculation). This frenzy of trading was
totally out of control by the governments or central bank only because most
people are happy to make money and feel like they are real beneficiaries of
"nice" economy. As is
often the case, bubbled economy does not continue so long. Finally this tulip
fever came to the end. As a result, uncountable number of people suffered from
tremendous amount of loss and the economy of the Netherlands were seriously
hurt by the termination of this bubble.
