1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: We all know that what goes up must come down 7 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: one way or another, and to steer further into that cliche, 8 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:45,919 Speaker 1: the higher up, the farther the fall. This has been 9 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: the case with every financial bubble in history, housing, banking, railroads, 10 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: and even flowers. It turns out you can find the 11 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 1: value in anything and everything, including the tulip spring is 12 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: beautiful in the Northeast, and not just because of the 13 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: blooms on the trees after months of a gray, depressing winter, 14 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: but also because of the many parks that chose to 15 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: plant tulip bulbs to brighten up their flower beds. It's 16 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,600 Speaker 1: a good choice. You can get them in nearly every color, 17 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: and they stand head and shoulders above most blooms. Plus 18 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: they're cheap, which is always popular with local governments. It's 19 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: hard to imagine a time when tulips were so rare, 20 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: so popular, and so expensive that they lifted the markets 21 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:27,959 Speaker 1: of an entire country. But that's what happened to the 22 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:30,960 Speaker 1: Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Now a lot of you 23 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: have heard even here about tulip mania or tulip fever. 24 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:37,040 Speaker 1: The wildest story from that period is that there was 25 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:39,440 Speaker 1: a sailor that thought that the bulb of a rare 26 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: tulip called Semper augustus was actually an onion, so he 27 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: chipped it up and ate it with his herring sandwich. 28 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: That likely disappointing meal got the man thrown in prison. 29 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,520 Speaker 1: Semper Augustus, if you've never seen it, is a beautiful 30 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 1: tulip with a flamelike stripe design of red and white 31 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:01,240 Speaker 1: on the petals. The bulbs individually cost ten ten thousand guilders, 32 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: which was more than most Dutch families would see in decades. 33 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: It was enough to buy a grand mansion with a 34 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,359 Speaker 1: plum view. It was enough to get a man who 35 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: made a simple mistake locked up. So how did the 36 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: Netherlands become the hub of this madness. Tulips were first 37 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: introduced by the Ottoman Empire in the fifteen nineties According 38 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: to one story, it was the Dutch ambassador to the 39 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,920 Speaker 1: Ottoman court that noticed the beautiful flower and sent several 40 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: samples to a botanist friend back home. The flower became 41 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,440 Speaker 1: an oddity after that, and then a status symbol thanks 42 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:35,839 Speaker 1: to the unique shape and the bright colors. And then 43 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,520 Speaker 1: a funny thing happened. The tulips exploded across Europe. It 44 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: was the topic of conversation everywhere, and they began taking 45 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:48,639 Speaker 1: on value. Color, size and pattern could increase or decrease 46 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: the price of the bulbs. Prices first started going up 47 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: in the sixteen thirties as the country's overall wealth was 48 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:58,320 Speaker 1: growing thanks to that famous Dutch East India company. This 49 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: combined with a newfound thaca and study of the natural world, 50 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: meant that the time was ripe for the tulip. Unfortunately, 51 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: for the Dutch, this was often a time consuming process. 52 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:11,799 Speaker 1: Tulip bulbs that came from seeds can take up to 53 00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:15,320 Speaker 1: twelve years to finally flower, although many didn't take quite 54 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: that long. People began paying more for what they called 55 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: broken bulbs of tulips that had striped or multicolored patterns 56 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: on their petals because they were so unpredictable. Naturally, they 57 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:28,880 Speaker 1: grew to be in the highest demand. Think of it 58 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:32,040 Speaker 1: like opening a pack of Pokemon or magic the gathering 59 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: trading cards. It was a gamble and people were happy 60 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: to pay for the chance to win. For all that 61 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 1: time and money, though, people only got to enjoy the 62 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:44,000 Speaker 1: actual flower for about a week, maybe just a little longer, 63 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:46,400 Speaker 1: but it was a week to be celebrated for sure. 64 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 1: Prices grew and grew and grew, until one day the 65 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: bubble burst. The fall was sharp and fast. Suddenly they 66 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:57,320 Speaker 1: weren't even worth one hundredth of what people had previously paid. 67 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: According to Scottish writer Charles Mackay, writing two hundred years 68 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: after in eighteen forty one, everyone from the aristocrats to 69 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: the chimney sweeps had taken part in the craze, and 70 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: the desolation of the market consumed more than a few fortunes. 71 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: It's a very neat story, and one that we've certainly 72 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: heard before, of ambition, greed and collapse. There's just one 73 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: tiny problem. We don't know if tulip fever was real. 74 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: Historians have begun taking a harder look at Mackay and 75 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: other sources to determine the true impact of tulipmania and 76 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: found its lacking. It's true that there was a booming 77 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:37,479 Speaker 1: tulip trade in the Netherlands in the early sixteen hundreds, 78 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 1: and some people really did spend an outrageous amount on 79 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:45,040 Speaker 1: certain types of bulbs, but those cases are outliers. Stories 80 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,120 Speaker 1: like that of the sailor who ate the bulb thinking 81 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:50,240 Speaker 1: it was an onion, or of poor street sweepers wandering 82 00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:52,760 Speaker 1: the gutters looking for a bulb that might make them rich, 83 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 1: didn't actually happen and were actually propaganda by Calvinists who 84 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: feared the growing consumerism that was sweeping the increasingly prosperous Netherlands. 85 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:06,159 Speaker 1: This flower was a flash in the pan for the country, 86 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: and contrary to popular belief, likely didn't collapse an entire 87 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 1: economy when demand dried up. The number of tulips it 88 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,719 Speaker 1: would take to do that would be utterly overwhelming to 89 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:20,960 Speaker 1: the senses. I mean, honestly, just think about the pollen count. 90 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: Some stories are so old we have to take them 91 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,920 Speaker 1: on faith. When presented with a myth and a lack 92 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: of evidence, sometimes we simply accept what little we're left with. 93 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: An apocryphal story is often better than none at all. 94 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: And even if the legend doesn't make sense, it's certainly 95 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,240 Speaker 1: a lot more fun than whatever the truth might be. 96 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,599 Speaker 1: Right back in sixteen seventy four, an officer in England's 97 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 1: Royal Navy arrived in America was Christopher Billup, and he'd 98 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:04,760 Speaker 1: been placed in charge of an infantry that had traveled overseas. 99 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:07,280 Speaker 1: With him. Along for the ride was a new Royal 100 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,360 Speaker 1: Governor of New York, a man named Edmund Andros. Billup 101 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: decided to make his home on a small island off 102 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,520 Speaker 1: the coast of New Jersey. He'd been granted a patent 103 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: for just over nine hundred and thirty acres of land 104 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: on its southern tip, as well as an additional thirty 105 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:25,440 Speaker 1: acres of salt meadow to the west. Prior to Billup's arrival, 106 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:28,719 Speaker 1: the Dutch controlled the area. Their land grant stated that 107 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 1: they owned everything on the western side of the Hudson River. 108 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: The director of the Dutch India Company itself, Michael po, 109 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,240 Speaker 1: had obtained the deed from the Native Americans there for 110 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: what would eventually become Billups Island. Well. Some thirty years 111 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,279 Speaker 1: after the Dutch had claimed the region, the British sailed 112 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: in and took over, and to everyone's surprise, they did 113 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 1: it peacefully. New Amsterdam now belonged to Great Britain, and 114 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:55,400 Speaker 1: King Charles the Second, who was in charge of England 115 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 1: at the time, generously handed over control of that land 116 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:01,480 Speaker 1: there to his brother, James, the Duke of York, so 117 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:04,960 Speaker 1: they called it New York. With New York and New 118 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:07,320 Speaker 1: Jersey now under the purview of the British, it was 119 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 1: time to set some ground rules. James established ownership among 120 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 1: the colonies and declared that any territories west of the 121 00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:17,000 Speaker 1: Hudson River belonged to New Jersey. Say for a handful 122 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: of islands that were still considered part of New York. 123 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: But there was one island that had found itself in 124 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:25,520 Speaker 1: the middle of a dispute between the two provinces. You 125 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: guessed it. It was the same island that Captain Billup 126 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: now called home. The Duke of York was in a quandary. 127 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: If he allowed New York and New Jersey to continue 128 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: to fight over this small territory, they'd be at odds 129 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:41,080 Speaker 1: over taxes and tariffs forever. He needed to make a decision, 130 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: But rather than issue one outright, he chose instead to 131 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: turn it into a wager. He said that if an 132 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 1: island in the harbor could be circumnavigated in only twenty 133 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,200 Speaker 1: four hours, then New York could claim ownership. And the 134 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:56,400 Speaker 1: man he chose to sail around this particular island, why 135 00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:58,360 Speaker 1: it was the person who now lived there, of course, 136 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:02,480 Speaker 1: Captain Christopher Billup. Billip was contracted by the Duke himself 137 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: to circumnavigate the island, a job he was perfectly qualified for. 138 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:09,200 Speaker 1: After all, he'd already spent years in the British Royal 139 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,760 Speaker 1: Navy and was well versed in sailing across the ocean. This, 140 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: honestly would be a piece of cake. In sixteen seventy five, 141 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:20,680 Speaker 1: Billip boarded his ship, the Bentley, and set sail. He 142 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: traveled around the island in just over twenty three hours, 143 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,040 Speaker 1: squeezing in a victory under the Duke of York's one 144 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: day limit. Billip had not only secured the island for 145 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:33,520 Speaker 1: New York, but he'd also earned himself another hefty parcel 146 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: of land there as well. At least that's how the 147 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,679 Speaker 1: legend goes. You see, there's no evidence that such a 148 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:42,880 Speaker 1: race ever occurred. We have no paper trail to follow, 149 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:45,600 Speaker 1: and all that remains are a handful of news articles 150 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:49,000 Speaker 1: written in the early twentieth century, and a whole lot 151 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:52,200 Speaker 1: of speculation. This is a story that has been passed 152 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,800 Speaker 1: down through generations and as such has become something of 153 00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: a New York myth. Regardless of whether or not you 154 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:02,200 Speaker 1: believe it, this is the story we have. It may 155 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: be apocryphal, but it's a fun and exciting way to 156 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: imagine how one man helps settle the ultimate debates between 157 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 1: New York and New Jersey, not who has the best pizza, 158 00:09:12,679 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 1: but who owns Staten Island. I hope you've enjoyed today's 159 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 160 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 161 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:32,840 Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by 162 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:36,480 Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I 163 00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:40,359 Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 164 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:43,400 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 165 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until 166 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:51,520 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.