The Humbugs of the World · Chapter
XXV The Tulipomania explained
This chapter recounts the Dutch Tulipomania of the 1630s, a speculative frenzy in which tulip bulbs reached absurdly high prices before the market collapsed, causing widespread ruin.
What happens
This chapter recounts the Dutch Tulipomania of the 1630s, a speculative frenzy in which tulip bulbs reached absurdly high prices before the market collapsed, causing widespread ruin. Barnum uses anecdotes—a sailor eating a priceless bulb and a botanist dissecting another—to illustrate the madness and moral of the craze.
Themes in this chapter
Gullibility and Human Nature
The chapter illustrates how entire nations can be swept into irrational speculation, driven by greed and herd mentality.
Cultural and Historical Context
Barnum places the Tulipomania within the broader context of Dutch culture, noting their love of arts and horticulture, and contrasts it with contemporary speculative manias.
Definition and Nature of Humbug
The tulip craze is presented as a prime example of humbug—a collective delusion based on no intrinsic value.
Characters to notice
- Ben Bolt
A sailor who ate a Semper Augustus tulip bulb, mistaking it for an onion, and was imprisoned for his act.
- Mr. Barnum
The narrator and author, who tells the story of the Tulipomania and its lessons.
Key passages
“A sailor brought to a rich Dutch merchant news of the safe arrival of a very valuable cargo from the Levant. The old hunks rewarded the mariner for his good tidings with one red herring for breakfast.”
A sailor delivered good news to a wealthy Dutch merchant, who rewarded him only with a single herring.
Illustrates the merchant's stinginess, which leads to the sailor's fateful theft of the tulip bulb.
“An English traveller, very fond of botany, was one day in the conservatory of a rich Dutchman, when he saw a strange bulb lying on a shelf. With that extreme coolness and selfishness which too many travellers have exercised, what does he do but take out his penknife and carefully dissect it...”
A botanically curious English traveler, while visiting a Dutchman's greenhouse, cut open a rare bulb with his penknife to examine it.
Demonstrates the clash between scientific curiosity and property rights, and the extreme value placed on tulip bulbs.