Tulip mania is the 1637 Dutch trading mania often described as an early speculative market crash.
During the Dutch Golden Age, certain tulip bulbs became highly prized, especially varieties with unusual colors and patterns. Contracts for bulbs and bulbs not yet harvested could change hands at rising prices. Stories of spectacular profits encouraged more participation and helped create a speculative atmosphere.
In February 1637, a sale in Haarlem reportedly failed to attract expected buyers, and confidence weakened. Prices then fell rapidly in some markets. The scale and social impact of the episode have been debated by historians, and later popular accounts often exaggerate it as a nationwide economic catastrophe.
Tulip mania is not a stock-market crash in the modern sense: the Netherlands did not have a modern public stock exchange trading company shares in the way later markets did. It is included in financial history because it illustrates how expectations, leverage, limited liquidity, and herd behavior can inflate asset prices and intensify a collapse.