The 17th-century Dutch financial mania often called the first recorded speculative market bubble was Tulip mania.
Tulip mania took place in the Dutch Republic, especially during the 1630s. Rare tulip bulbs became objects of intense trading, and some contracts were exchanged at prices far beyond the value of ordinary flowers. The market reached its most famous speculative phase in late 1636 and early 1637 before confidence collapsed in February 1637.
The episode is frequently presented as a simple story of irrational investors bidding one bulb to enormous prices. Historians have shown that the market involved specialized contracts, seasonal trading and a relatively small group of participants. The scale of the economic damage was probably more limited than later popular retellings suggest.
Tulip mania is included in histories of financial bubbles because it illustrates a recurring pattern: an attractive asset becomes a focus of speculation, rising prices create expectations of further gains, and confidence reverses. It was not a modern stock-market crash, because tulip bulbs are commodities rather than company shares.