Tulipomania: The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower and the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused by Mike Dash
12mo. pp. xxi, 298. 4 pages of illustrations. bibliography. index. hardcover boards. dw. London: Victor Gollancz, [1999].
ISBN-10: 0575067233 / ISBN-13: 9780575067233
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This is the story of the first great stock market boom in history. In 1630s Holland there was a frenzy over an exotic bloom newly imported from the East: the tulip. Over three years, rare tulip bulbs changed hands for sums that would have bought a house in Amsterdam: a single bulb sold for more than $300,000 at today's prices. Finally, there was a horrendous crash and prices collapsed overnight, ruining thousands. A historian with a special interest in mass hysteria, Mike Dash recreates the Holland of the 17th century and follows a couple of families who were deeply involved in the mania.