Year 2 – May 14, 2013 Tulip Mania
I was watching a TV show that talked about Tulip Mania. Tulip mania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. At the peak of tulip mania, in March 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble). The term “tulip mania” is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble.