ABSTRACT
The Kleine Bank van Justitie in Haarlem – the small claims court – met twice a week in the 1630s, dealing mostly with the failure of Haarlemmers to pay for food, beer, or other items that had been sold to them on account, or, conversely, for the non-delivery of such items. In the autumn of 1636, however, the court was flooded with cases about something rather more exotic: tulip bulbs. This was the period of Tulipmania, and since in this period prices were still rising, the problem was almost always failure to deliver rather than failure to pay. Possessors of bulbs, having promised to sell them, cursed themselves for making sales one week when the next week they could have got a better price. Often they simply reneged on the original deal.
