Tulip mania is the Dutch speculative bubble commonly described as the first recorded financial-market crash.
During the Dutch Golden Age, rare tulip bulbs became highly prized, and contracts for bulbs were traded at rising prices. The market reached a turning point in Haarlem in February 1637, when buyers failed to appear at an auction. Confidence weakened, and prices for some contracts collapsed.
Modern historians caution that popular accounts exaggerate the scale and social reach of the episode. Anne Goldgar’s research found limited evidence that the entire Dutch economy was ruined or that masses of people were bankrupted. Many transactions were canceled rather than settled, and the market mainly involved a specialized group of traders.
Tulip mania remains important because it illustrates how scarcity, fashion, leverage, and expectations can inflate asset prices. It is often compared with the South Sea Bubble of 1720, but that later British episode involved a major joint-stock company and government debt.