Which 17th-century European speculation crisis centered on tulip bulbs?

Tulip mania was the 17th-century European speculation crisis centered on tulip bulbs.

The episode occurred mainly in the Dutch Republic during the 1630s. Certain tulip varieties became luxury goods, and contract prices rose dramatically as buyers speculated that bulbs could be resold at higher prices. In February 1637, the market abruptly lost confidence, and prices fell sharply.

Tulip mania is often described as the first major financial bubble, although historians debate how widespread the speculation was and how severe its economic effects became. Many popular accounts portray ordinary Dutch society as completely consumed by tulips, but surviving evidence suggests the episode may have involved a narrower group of traders than later retellings imply.

Tulip contracts differed from modern exchange-traded stocks, so the event was not literally a stock-market crash. It is still a useful example of speculative bubbles: assets become detached from practical value, buyers rely on continued price increases, and sentiment reverses suddenly. The term remains common in discussions of financial manias.