I'll write up my own, but I want to see if anyone actually has anything of value to write about the 3 month Dutch tulip craze whilst their currency was in turmoil, amongst an exceptionally small group of wealthy Dutch.
Here, I'll even give the group a decent source:
https://www.history.com/news/tulip-mania-financial-crash-hollandFor those who don't click links:
Quote:
She only found 37 people who paid more than 300 guilders for a tulip bulb, the equivalent of what a skilled craftsman earned in a year.
Quote:
"I only identified about 350 people who were involved in the trade, although I'm sure that number is on the low side because I didn't look at every town," says Goldgar. "Those people were very often connected with each other in various ways, through a profession, family or religion."
For the more inclined, mises explains the monetary environment and describes how the mania was no mania at all, but wealthy people maximizing their "stores of wealth" outside of a fluctuating currency.
https://mises.org/library/dutch-monetary-environment-during-tulipmaniaQuote:
It is highly probable that in Kindleberger's view the supply of money in 1630s Holland, did not undergo the sudden increase needed to create a speculative bubble. But this paper will present evidence to the contrary; the supply of money did increase dramatically in 1630s Holland, serving to engender the tulipmania episode.
Quote:
As the above evidence indicates, free coinage, the Bank of Amsterdam, and the heightened trade and commerce in Holland served to attract coin and bullion from throughout the world. As Del Mar (1969a, p. 351) writes:
Under the stimulus of "free" coinage, an immense quantity of the precious metals now found their way to Holland, and a rise of prices ensued, which found one form of expression in the curious mania of buying tulips at prices often exceeding that of the ground on which they were grown.
Del Mar (1969a, p. 352) goes on to discuss the end of Tulipmania:
In 1648, when the Peace of Westphalia acknowledged the independence of the Dutch republic, the latter stopped the "free" coinage of silver florins and only permitted it for gold ducats, which in Holland had no legal value. This legislation discouraged the imports of silver bullion, checked the rise of prices, and put an end to the tulip mania.
Del Mar concedes in a footnote that the mania had already been discouraged on April 27th, 1637 by a resolution of the States-General that canceled all contracts.
Meaning a majority of the craze was PAPER tulips, not tulips themselves during a time of MASSIVE monetary supply increases resulted from free coinage. Wealthy people were trying to outdo the monetary supply and when out of control, had the authorities to cancel their contracts. Sounds more like 2008 housing crisis than bitcoin. But what the fudge could I know.
