The tulip fever that swept the Netherlands in the 17th century is a textbook example of a speculative bubble. Merchants did invest colossal money in flower bulbs, but was the madness really as widespread as some sources would have us believe?

“The Pope no longer thanks us for the flowers,” reported the Dutch media despondently in 2019. The headline was somewhat exaggerated because, in fact, Francis had nothing to thank the Dutch for. The journalists could have more accurately written: “We, the Dutch, no longer send the Pope flowers.” This was a tradition dating back to 1985, when during the beatification ceremony of the Dutch priest Titus Brandsma in Rome, his compatriots prepared a special floral composition. The gesture was repeated every year at Easter – usually arranged with yellow and white flowers. Over the years, the custom developed to such an extent that it took as many as 25 florists to oversee the final shape of the Easter composition over a course of two days, year after year.