--- title: Tulip Fever Movie and the True Story of Dutch Tulip Mania description: "The tulips had little intrinsic value. Their worth as commodities was a function of pure, irrational desire" canonical: https://time.com/4896942/tulip-fever-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-01T13:00:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:57:22.188Z article:section: History og:title: The Real Economic Madness Behind 'Tulip Fever' og:description: "The tulips had little intrinsic value. Their worth as commodities was a function of pure, irrational desire" og:url: https://time.com/4896942/tulip-fever-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta44e5c9bb3bfc6d8/6988d951ab6d77c1e16af5c3/tulip-fever.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TULIP FEVER og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Real Economic Madness Behind 'Tulip Fever' twitter:description: "The tulips had little intrinsic value. Their worth as commodities was a function of pure, irrational desire" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta44e5c9bb3bfc6d8/6988d951ab6d77c1e16af5c3/tulip-fever.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Real Economic Madness Behind _Tulip Fever_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 1, 2017 1:00 PM UTC  A scene from 'Tulip Fever' A scene from 'Tulip Fever'Alex Bailey—The Weinstein Company  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 1, 2017 1:00 PM UTC With a romance at its center, the title of the [oft-delayed](http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/a-tribute-to-the-truly-bungled-release-of-tulip-fever.html) film _Tulip Fever_ (and the novel on which the Alicia Vikander and Dane DeHaan movie is based) plays on the passionate sense of a “fever.” But the real historical context in which the story is set had to do with a fever less about love and more about money. The fever in question, known as the Tulip Mania (sometimes styled as one word), struck in 17th century Holland, when the nation’s now-[famous](http://time.com/3830528/see-striking-and-colorful-fields-of-dutch-tulips/) blooms caused a major financial boom and bust. As TIME once [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1979-12-31/page/60/) in a story about a different boom market, the flower itself was almost incidental to the story: --- > “” --- It was, [according](https://books.google.com/books?id=8O9nBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1883&dq=tulip+mania+economic+encyclopedia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvubPspPPVAhVHfiYKHUpwAA8QuwUILzAB#v=onepage&q=tulip%20mania%20economic%20encyclopedia&f=false) to Mehmet Odekon’s financial encyclopedia _Booms and Busts_, the first significant bubble in European financial history. It burst in 1637 when tulip speculators could no longer find investors; without that flow of money, the bulbs themselves “plummeted” in value. In the centuries since, though many experts believe it did not really damage the Dutch economy long-term, it has remained an important touchstone and reference point for what can happen when financial speculation goes haywire. The level of speculation, in fact, would even have affected the painterly plot of _Tulip Fever._ “At the height of the Dutch tulip mania,” Robert Hughes [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/2001-05-07/spread/66/) in a 2001 review of work by the Dutch artist Vermeer, “such rare blooms would never have been cut for a painter; he would have had to draw them in the garden.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4896942/tulip-fever-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4896942/tulip-fever-history/"},"headline":"The Real Economic Madness Behind Tulip Fever","datePublished":"2017-09-01T13:00:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:57:22.188Z","description":"\"The tulips had little intrinsic value. 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