The Flower Bubble ebook

"The Flower Bubble – When a single tulip bulb cost more than a mansion" dissects the first recorded speculative bubble in history: the Dutch Tulip Mania of 1636-1637. In the Golden Age of the Netherlands, a virus caused tulips to develop beautiful, rare stripes ("Semper Augustus"). Suddenly, everyone from chimney sweeps to aristocrats began trading bulbs. Prices skyrocketed until a single bulb was worth the price of a grand house on an Amsterdam canal. Financial historian William Bobby details the madness of the futures market, where people traded contracts for flowers that hadn't even bloomed yet. He describes the inevitable crash in February 1637, when buyers failed to show up at an auction, and fortunes evaporated overnight. "The Flower Bubble" is a timeless lesson on human greed and herd mentality. Whether it's dot-coms, housing, or crypto, the psychology remains the same: the belief that prices will go up forever, right until the moment they don't.