CLASSIC: Were Tulips Really The Bitcoin of the 1600s?

CLASSIC: Were Tulips Really The Bitcoin of th...

Up next

Getting High with Ridiculous Crime: Reindeer Trips and Soothing Syrup

Did you know reindeer love tripping? Or that, once upon a time, otherwise responsible parents would dose their children with high-test opioids? In the second chapter of their ongoing series, Ben, Noel, and Max welcome returning guest Zaron Burnett, co-creator of Ridiculous Crime, ...  Show more

Getting High with Ridiculous Crime: Betel Nut and 'Asthma Cigarettes'

Have you ever gone full red-mouth off betel nut? Did you ever buy cigarettes to cure your asthma? When Ben, Noel, and Max first began exploring bizarre drugs of yesteryear, they had no idea that they'd stumbled across a continuing series. Luckily, the guys aren't returning to thi ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

SYMHC Classics: How Tulip Mania Worked
Stuff You Missed in History Class

This 2011 episode is from prior hosts Sarah and Deblina. During the 17th century, the Dutch went nuts for tulips, paying exorbitant amounts for a single bulb. But what exactly triggered this commodity bubble? And what do revisionist historians have to say?  Learn more about your ...  Show more

Tulips
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

In the 1630s, the Netherlands experienced 'tulip mania' - a surge in demand for tulips from wealthy buyers, with some individual bulbs costing twenty times more than a carpenter's annual salary. Then, in February 1637, the price suddenly crashed. It's often cited as the first gre ...  Show more

Short Stuff: Tulipmania
Stuff You Should Know

The world experienced its first economic bubble when the Dutch went bonkers for tulips in the 1630s.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

LIVE: The Myth of the Million Dollar Tulip Bulb
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Recorded before an audience at the Bristol Festival of Economics (11/17/2022) The Dutch went so potty over tulip bulbs in the 1600s that many were ruined when the inflated prices they were paying for the plants collapsed - that's the oft-repeated story later promoted by best-sell ...  Show more