Istanbul Alive Magazine April 2014 ISTANBUL ALIVE APRIL 2014 | Page 6

RHYTHM OF ISTANBUL İSTANBUL’UN RİTMİ

SYMBOL OF SIMPLE
AND MYSTERIOUS BEAUTY

TULIP
The tulip that had been brought to Anatolia from
Middle Asia by Turks then went to Europe is today
creating big economic potential.

Sometime in the year of 1637, a
Dutch farmer was in the market for
a tulip, Upon finding a bloemist who
carried the specific variety of flower
that he desired, the farmer carried
on negotiations with the flowerseller. When an agreement had
been reached, the farmer acquired
his flower-bulb. The purchase price
that the farmer apparently deemed
reasonable for a single tulip-bulb of
the Viceroy variety included "two
[loads] of wheat and four of rye,
four fat oxen, eight pigs, a dozen
sheep, two oxheads of wine, four
tons of butter, a thousand pounds
of cheese, a bed, some dothing
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• I S TA N B U L A L I V E

and a silver beaker. " I Such a high
price, estimated at approximately
2,500 guilders, for a single tulip
was not unusual. During the height
of the Dutch 'tulip mania' in the
seventeenth century, a Semper
Augustus, considered to be even
more precious than the Viceroy
tulip, could bring in close to 6,000
guilders. In fact, tulip prices and the
practice of tulip speculation became
so excessive and frenzied that in
1637 the States of Holland passed
a statute curbing such extremes.
Widely available at modest prices
today, tulips are still closely associated
with the Netherlands. However, the