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Tulip mania or tulipomania (Dutch names include: ''tulpenmanie, tulpomanie, tulpenwoede, tulpengekte'' and ''bollengekte'') was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed.〔''Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused''. Mike Dash (2001).〕 At the peak of tulip mania, in March 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble),〔 More extensive discussion of status as the earliest bubble on pp. 247–48.〕 although some researchers have noted that the ''Kipper- und Wipperzeit'' episode in 1619–22, a Europe-wide chain of debasement of the metal content of coins to fund warfare, featured mania-like similarities to a bubble.〔Kindleberger, Charles P. and Aliber, Robert (2005 ()), Manias, Panics and Crashes. A History of Financial Crises, New York, ISBN 0-465-04380-1, p. 16.〕 The term "tulip mania" is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble (when asset prices deviate from intrinsic values). The 1637 event was popularized in 1841 by the book ''Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds'', written by British journalist Charles Mackay. According to Mackay, at one point 12 acres (5 ha) of land were offered for a ''Semper augustus'' bulb.〔"The Tulipomania", Chapter 3, in .〕 Mackay claims that many such investors were ruined by the fall in prices, and Dutch commerce suffered a severe shock. Although Mackay's book is a classic, his account is contested. Many modern scholars feel that the mania was not as extraordinary as Mackay described and argue that not enough price data are available to prove that a tulip bulb bubble actually occurred. Research is difficult because of the limited economic data from the 1630s—much of which come from biased and very speculative sources.〔〔(A pamphlet about the Dutch tulipomania ) Wageningen Digital Library, July 14, 2006. Retrieved on August 13, 2008.〕 Some modern economists have proposed rational explanations, rather than a speculative mania, for the rise and fall in prices. For example, other flowers, such as the hyacinth, also had high initial prices at the time of their introduction, which immediately fell. The high asset prices may also have been driven by expectations of a parliamentary decree that contracts could be voided for a small cost—thus lowering the risk to buyers. == History == The introduction of the tulip to Europe is usually attributed to Ogier de Busbecq, the ambassador of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor to the Sultan of Turkey, who sent the first tulip bulbs and seeds to Vienna in 1554 from the Ottoman Empire.〔Panic, Prosperity, and Progress- Timothy Knight, p.1〕 Tulip bulbs were soon distributed from Vienna to Augsburg, Antwerp and Amsterdam.〔Brunt, Alan; Walsh, John, "'Broken' tulips and Tulip breaking virus", ''Microbiology Today'', May, 2005, p. 68.〕 Its popularity and cultivation in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) is generally thought to have started in earnest around 1593 after the Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius had taken up a post at the University of Leiden and established the ''hortus academicus''. He planted his collection of tulip bulbs and found they were able to tolerate the harsher conditions of the Low Countries; shortly thereafter the tulip began to grow in popularity. The tulip was different from every other flower known to Europe at that time, with a saturated intense petal color that no other plant had. The appearance of the non pareil tulip as a status symbol at this time coincides with the rise of newly independent Holland's trade fortunes. No longer the Spanish Netherlands, its economic resources could now be channeled into commerce and the country embarked on its Golden Age. Amsterdam merchants were at the center of the lucrative East Indies trade, where one voyage could yield profits of 400%.〔Ricklefs, M. C. (1991). A History of Modern Indonesia Since c.1300, 2nd Edition. London: MacMillan. pp. 27〕 The new merchant class displayed and validated its success, primarily by setting up grand estates surrounded by flower gardens, and the plant that had pride of place was the sensational tulip. As a result, tulips rapidly became a coveted luxury item, and a profusion of varieties followed. They were classified in groups: the single-hued tulips of red, yellow, or white were known as ''Couleren''; the multicolored ''Rosen'' (white streaks on a red or pink background), ''Violetten'' (white streaks on a purple or lilac background), and the rarest of all, the ''Bizarden (Bizarres)'', (yellow or white streaks on a red, brown or purple background). The multicolor effects of intricate lines and flame-like streaks on the petals were vivid and spectacular and made the bulbs that produced these even more exotic-looking plants highly sought-after. It is now known that this effect is due to the bulbs being infected with a type of tulip-specific mosaic virus, known as the "Tulip breaking virus", so called because it "breaks" the one petal color into two or more.〔Phillips, S. "(Tulip breaking potyvirus )", in Brunt, A. A., Crabtree, K., Dallwitz, M. J., Gibbs, A. J., Watson, L. and Zurcher, E. J. (eds.) (1996 onwards). ''Plant Viruses Online: Descriptions and Lists from the VIDE Database.'' Version: August 20, 1996. Retrieved on August 15, 2008.〕 The tulip was itself a conspirator in the supply-squeeze that fueled the speculation, in that it is grown from a bulb that cannot be produced quickly. Normally it takes 7–12 years to grow a flowering bulb from seed; bulbs can produce both seeds and two or three bud clones, or offsets, annually, but the "mother bulb" lasts only a few years. Properly cultivated, the "daughter offsets" will become flowering bulbs after one to three years. Before the demand for the "broken" tulips, virus-free bulbs producing ordinary single-color varieties were sold by the pound. Once affected by the virus, the "broken" exotics were an extremely limited commodity because the sought-after "breaking pattern" can only be reproduced through offsets, not seeds, as only the bulb is affected by the mosaic virus. Unfortunately, the virus that produced the sought-after effects also acted adversely on the bulb, weakening it and retarding propagation of offsets, so cultivating the most appealing varieties now took even longer. Taking this into account, quite probably from the time the speculation started until its collapse, the number of rare bulbs that changed hands so feverishly never increased beyond the original number. The beautiful effects of the virus made the flamboyant and extravagant plants highly coveted, and because they were rare and desirable, they were expensive. Given that, it is not surprising growers named their new varieties with exalted titles. Many early forms were prefixed ''Admirael'' ("admiral"), often combined with the growers' names: ''Admirael van der Eijck'' for example, was perhaps the most highly regarded of about fifty so named. ''Generael'' ("general") was another prefix used for around thirty varieties. Later varieties were given even more extravagant names, derived from Alexander the Great or Scipio, or even "Admiral of Admirals" and "General of Generals". However, naming could be haphazard and varieties highly variable in quality. Most of these varieties have now died out, though virus-free variegated-bred tulips continue in the trade. In the Northern Hemisphere, tulips bloom in April and May for about one week. During the plant's dormant phase from (Northern Hemisphere) June to September, bulbs can be uprooted and moved about, so actual purchases (in the spot market) occurred during these months. During the rest of the year, ''florists'', or tulip traders, signed contracts before a notary to buy tulips at the end of the season (effectively futures contracts).〔 Thus the Dutch, who developed many of the techniques of modern finance, created a market for tulip bulbs, which were durable goods.〔 Short selling was banned by an edict of 1610, which was reiterated or strengthened in 1621 and 1630, and again in 1636. Short sellers were not prosecuted under these edicts, but their contracts were deemed unenforceable. As the flowers grew in popularity, professional growers paid higher and higher prices for bulbs with the virus, and prices rose steadily. By 1634, in part as a result of demand from the French, speculators began to enter the market. The contract price of rare bulbs continued to rise throughout 1636, but by November, the price of common, "unbroken" bulbs also began to increase, so that soon any tulip bulb could fetch hundreds of guilders. That year the Dutch created a type of formal futures markets where contracts to buy bulbs at the end of the season were bought and sold. Traders met in "colleges" at taverns and buyers were required to pay a 2.5% "wine money" fee, up to a maximum of three guilders per trade. Neither party paid an initial margin nor a mark-to-market margin, and all contracts were with the individual counter-parties rather than with the Exchange. The Dutch described tulip contract trading as ''windhandel'' (literally "wind trade"), because no bulbs were actually changing hands. The entire business was accomplished on the margins of Dutch economic life, not in the Exchange itself. By 1636 the tulip bulb became the fourth leading export product of the Netherlands, after gin, herring and cheese. The price of tulips skyrocketed because of speculation in tulip futures among people who never saw the bulbs. Many men made and lost fortunes overnight.〔Simon Schama, ''The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age'' (1997) pp 350–66 esp p. 362〕 Tulip mania reached its peak during the winter of 1636–37, when some bulbs were reportedly changing hands ten times in a day. No deliveries were ever made to fulfil any of these contracts, because in February 1637, tulip bulb contract prices collapsed abruptly and the trade of tulips ground to a halt. The collapse began in Haarlem, when, for the first time, buyers apparently refused to show up at a routine bulb auction. This may have been because Haarlem was then at the height of an outbreak of bubonic plague. While the existence of the plague may have helped create a culture of fatalistic risk-taking that allowed the speculation to skyrocket in the first place, this outbreak might also have helped to burst the bubble. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「tulip mania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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