Tulip mania was the 1637 Dutch speculative episode widely regarded as the first major financial bubble and crash.
The episode centered on tulip bulbs in the Dutch Republic, where rare varieties became highly desirable among wealthy collectors and merchants. Contracts to buy bulbs later, sometimes before the bulbs were lifted from the ground, changed hands at increasingly high prices.
In early 1637, confidence broke. Buyers stopped appearing at some auctions, and prices fell sharply. Because many contracts were commitments to buy in the future rather than fully paid transactions, the collapse created disputes over whether purchasers had to complete their deals.
The popular story is sometimes exaggerated. Historian Anne Goldgar has argued that the financial and social damage was more limited than later retellings suggest, and that only a small proportion of Dutch households participated. Tulip mania was not a modern stock-market crash, but it remains a classic example of speculative excess followed by a sudden loss of confidence.