Tulips

Tulipmania: The Tulip, which means turban in Turkish, was introduced to Western Europe in the middle of the sixteenth century and shortly thereafter, Tulipmania spread throughout Holland. Rich people from Amsterdam began sending directly to Constantinople for bulbs paying the most fabulous prices. The rage for possessing them soon seized the middle classes. Then people of moderate means began to vie for them paying the most preposterous prices for the more rare of the flowers. By 1634 many wealthy Dutchmen "were known to invest a fortune of 100,000 florins in the purchase of forty bulbs." Tulips were regularly sold on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, and by 1636 were also being sold on the London Exchange. By November 1636 Tulipmania had reached its peak. Prices had risen so dramatically that it became necessary to sell certain types by their weight. An Admiral Vander Eyck specie, for example was worth 1,260 florins, while the more rare Semper Agustus was thought cheap at 5,500 florins. Speculators were so anxious to obtain the latter variety that "one buyer offered 12 acres of buildable land. Another was purchased for 4,600 florins, plus a new carriage and two grey horses including a set of harness." Eventually the most prudent people began to see that this folly would not last forever, buyers simply could not afford to pay continually higher prices. As this conviction spread, more people began to say this could not go on. Then the psychology broke. Buyers defaulted on their payments. Millions in profits and equities and credit extended were wiped out and the matter was referred to the judges at the Hague who refused to intervene ruling that gambling debts were unenforceable.

from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
by Charles McKay