Tulip mania
A speculative bubble in flower bulbs becomes the standing metaphor for all of them.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Dutch tulip contract prices rise steeply through 1636 and collapse in February 1637. The popular account of ruined fortunes and a nation gripped by madness comes largely from a moralising pamphlet tradition and a nineteenth-century book; modern economic historians find the actual damage limited and confined to a narrow group of traders. It endures as the reference point for financial bubbles regardless, which is itself instructive.