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Tulipmania in the Netherlands in the 1630s
"Och det där mönstret är i sin patologi pinsamt enkelt. Först infinner sig detta till synes *nya* på den ekonomiska scenen. Det lockar till förhoppningar, drömmar och spekulation. Priset går upp. Detta lockar nya köpare. Priset går upp igen. Fler spekulanter flockas. Priset går upp ännu mer, och så vidare. Precis som i tulpansvindeln skapar alltså bubblan sin egen uppåtrörelse, oberoende av de faktiska värdena. Kurvorna går så vackert i taket."
Ur Peter Englund och hans essä om Admiral Pottebacker och finansbubblornas historia
In 1634, in what later came o be known as "tulipmania", tulip bulbs were traded in a special marketplace in Amsterdam, the scene of a rabid speculative frenzy. Some rare black tulip bulbs changed hands for the price of a big mansion house. For four feverish years it seemed like the craze would last forever. But the bubble burst in 1637. In a matter of a few days, the price of tulip bulbs was slashed by 96%!
Sam Vaknin
The craziest bubble of all time was tulipmania in the Netherlands in the 1630s. Tulip bulbs, newly arrived from Turkey, became wildly fashionable, and prices soared. At the height of the mania, speculators paid 5,500 florins (equivalent to more than $50,000 in today’s money) for a single rare bulb.
The Economist, September 25, 1999
Charles Mackay, in his classic 1841 book “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, tells how one unfortunate sailor, who was rather partial to onions, was sent down to a rich man’s kitchen for breakfast, and ate a tulip bulb worth 3,000 florins by mistake.
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