Margen
In the winter of 1636-37, at the height of the Dutch tulip fever, single bulbs were contracted for thousands of guilders: more than a skilled craftsman earned in ten years, and prices comparable to a house in Amsterdam. The most coveted, the Semper Augustus, wore red flames on white petals. In February 1637 prices collapsed, and history's first financial bubble was born.
So much for the legend. Now the nuances historians found when they opened the archives: almost nobody was ruined. It was a futures market among well-off merchants, many contracts were never enforced, and the Dutch economy barely blinked. The tales of national ruin were pumped up by moralising pamphlets.
The final twist? Those hypnotic flames on the Semper Augustus were caused by a virus. The most expensive item in the maddest market in history was, quite literally, a sick flower.