Tulipmania: More Boring Than You Thought
The title is a little misleading. The article itself acknowledges that there was a tulip fever:> That’s not to say that everything about the story is wrong; merchants really did engage in a frantic tulip trade, and they paid incredibly high prices for some bulbs. And when a number of buyers announced they couldn’t pay the high price previously agreed upon, the market did fall apart and cause a small crisis—but only because it undermined social expectations.But it implies that it's not all that notable because it didn't collapse the entire economy:> But the trade didn’t affect all levels of society, and it didn’t cause the collapse of industry in Amsterdam and elsewhere.Personally, I don't think I'd ever made the assumption that it had. Likewise, if Bitcoin were to implode, it would be similar — some people would suffer, but it wouldn't be all that widespread of an effect.Tulipmania still makes a great historical anecdote on speculation, and I for one, will keep using it as one.