Margen
In seventeenth-century Holland, simple tulip bulbs came to fetch astronomical prices. For the rarest and most coveted specimens, people paid sums comparable to the price of a house.
It was the height of "tulip mania." Tulips, newly arrived from the East, became fashionable among the wealthy classes, and soon people were buying bulbs not to plant them, but to resell them at a higher price. The price rose because everyone expected it to keep rising.
In 1637 the bubble burst: prices collapsed within days and many were ruined. It is often cited as one of the first great documented speculative bubbles, a mirror in which every new financial frenzy still looks at itself today.
Source: Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)