BBC about The Tulip Mania

In early 1637, tulip bulbs were reaching some truly extraordinary prices.

 Then, very suddenly, it was over.

 The highest price for which we have good evidence was 5,200 guilders for a single bulb, in that winter of 1637. 

 That is more than three times what Rembrandt charged for painting The Night Watch just five years later, and 20 times the annual income of a skilled worker, such as a carpenter.

 Perhaps the greatest boom and crash in history was the railway mania of the 1840s.




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