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Cape’s Interest in Flower is Far From Tulipomania

(Page 6 Please) BY 1556 de Busbecq had sent large quantities of tulip seeds and bulbs back

to Europe, and they were immensely popular from the first. From its initial appearance the flower was considered "rare and ex-

Dorlt Word WEARING DUTCH CAPS and smiles, Millie Lacanfora and Carln Feddermann, right, prepare a box of imported items for the Dutch festival, co-sponsored by Cape May City and the Greater Cape May Chamber of Commerce.

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otic,” as were most other articles from this part of the world. (Fbr Eastern imports of today are still treasured, but perhaps not as enthusiastically as during the 16th and 17th centuries. ) Things rare and exotic and usually expensive; these first tulips were no exception. The Dutch interest was so intense that during the 17th century a crisis developed in their economy which rivals the American Wall Street Market Crash of 1929. This Dutch financial hysteria is known historically as Tulipomania. AS A RESULT of their struggle to reclaim land from the ever encroaching seas, the Dutch had already become the best farmers and flower* growers in Europe. As their foreign trade and explorations continued to expand, the culture of tulips quickly found its way into their economy. It was the speculation as to ho\v many offsets an original bulb might produce that caused the monetary crisjp. Individual prices rose to astronomical figures — a single bulb could be worth more than IIO.OOO. Until the beginning of 16)4, the tulip trade hfid been in the hands of* the professional growers. It was a luxury trade and only Ihe wealthy could afford to participate. However, it was soon noticed that the city merchants and others even less affluent were 4‘detting into the market." Fdr example, a nobleman might buy from a chimneysweep who actually had no* bulbs. The nobleman would then sell to a farmer who really didn't want bufcs, per se,

but was planning to sell to someone else, and so on. Often payment was in kind and might consist of oxen, pigs, sheep, beer, wine, or grain. AT THE PEAK of this maniacal behavior, a single Semper Augustus bulb sold for $50,000 with a pair of horses and a carriage thrown in! By the middle of 1635 prices had risen steeply, all soils of people were involved, and frantic trading in futures was abroad in the land. By 1637 conditions were indeed ripe for a monetary collapse. Persons of small means with neither knowledge of the product nor control of the market were deeply involved. As in the American stock market debacle of 1929, the entire structure rested upon the general business optimism of the day. PARADOXICALLY all of this was of great value to the professional growers. They profited immensely from the ‘‘advertising,” as the story of Holland’s tulipomania had spread throughout the world. There was a mild revival during 1733-34 when some especially fine new varittes were discovered. The Dutch growers moved on to become the largest source of flowering bulbs in the world. They remain so today, and the tulip is no longer a “strange and forrein. floure." It’s been in our Western gardens now for over 400 years. Surely this is abundant proof of its beauty and durability. What better symbol for Cape May’s Dutch tribute — true to its origins, dependable, hai dy and universally appreciated.

Winning Essay The Cape, Before And After Mey by Beth Collier Long before European explorers discovered the New World, the Kechemeches, Lenni Lenape Indians inhabited New Jerseyi The first white man to enter this territory was Henry Hudson, an explorer fpr the Dutch East Indies Company. On April 6, 1609 Hudson sailed from Texel, HoUand on aq.eighty ton vessel, the Half Mqon Employed to discover a North West Passage to the Orient, Hudson decided to sail southward due to bad weather end mutiny aboard ship. He reached the Virginia Coast, turned north, and came to the Delaware River, where he enjoyed exploring its banks. Later on this voyage, he explored the Hudson 1 River. Arriving horaH Hudson’s reports interested the Dutch in Indian iur trading. In 1614, the United Capitol Netherlands Com' pany sent Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, of Horn in Holland, to investigate. Mey sailed the ship, Fortune, down the Jersey Coast. Mey called the sandy spit that separates the ocean from the bay by his own name. Cape May In 1920, Mey returned as captain of his own vessel, the Glad Tidings, to charter the bay and river for several miles inland, trade interest wllh America intensified after Collier 1621 Although the attention of the Dutch was centered on the Hudson, Captain Mey was more impressed with the riches of the Delaware. In 1623, he set sail on the vessel, New Netherlands, with thirty Wallloon colonists, Belgium Protestants fleeing Spanish persecution. Only four families were chosen to be the first white settlers along the Delaware They made brick houses, but still had little defense, for the troops assigned were ordered instead to go up stream to build Fort Nassau of logs on a point of rocks on the east bank of the Delaware, some ninety miles up the Delaware. The Walloons eventually became homesick and frightened and returned to New Amsterdam, now New York, ending the first colonization of the Delaware. Beth Collier. 10. is a fifth grader at Cape May City Elementary School.

m. /owe* j. tizzo

- CMI*0**ACTO* -

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In the interest of better health from the office of:

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