Yup. Basically you had Tulip bulbs, which were somewhat valuable but not really, but scarce because they die and have to be replanted or whatever. Then there were some fashionable tulips, which were multicolored. Forget the technical name I think it was confetti. Anyway, they were super rare.

They were unreliable mutations so having those bulbs - which were hard to get, hard to survive transportation, and only lived a year anyway - became a thing. Like a status symbol. And the price of those rose. But not to some insane levels like the mania-hypers would have you believe. Now this was in Holland.

So, then, you had people far away from Holland (the new world, especially) who wanted tulips and would pay a extra for some. It became a fashion. Especially because not only did they look great but because you could plant them and then sell them. It was a cash crop that also was decorative, perfect for appearance-conscious types. So the price went up because of how hard it was to transport them, but this was mostly for the regular bulbs - people wanted to plant BULBS because then you know the colors you get. Tulips aren't always true to seed I think, but also there was the possibility of disreputable dealers and also less or more vibrant qualities from the same seed.

OK so now you have to understand that colonists liked to drink. A LOT. And they did it at pubs and taverns. A LOT. And they liked to gamble and play games - and people would make futures contracts on tulips. Totally unregulated, totally legally binding but absolutely unenforceable. We're talking written on kerchiefs or not even written out, made on a drunken handshake, just a drunken bet.

They were tradeable, and the most legit ones that WERE written out had clauses that you could buy your way out of the contract for a tiny portion of it. Think like, "Tulips @ July5 $100,000 ^{or two pints of lager} " basically. It wasn't a real market. It amazes people think it was. I mean that's basically saying the people smart and innovative enough to conquer a continent and forge a new nation would pay an estates worth of money for a fucking flower bulb. Come on.

So anyway because these contracts were so stupid and loose and unenforceable people made them as huge as possible, it was a joke and a game. And the proof in this is that there is no crash at all recorded. When it was finally all shut down nobody lost money. There's no depression, no wealth evaporation, nothing at all recorded. That there is proof enough. If it were a legit bubble you'd have seen bulb producers going nuts to send bulbs to the new world, you'd see bulb broker offices on every main thoroughfare, you'd see counterfeit bulbs and entire industries that would have left cities and towns desolate and the people in them drowning in tulips ffs. Find one fucking Ye Olde Tulip Broker sign in a lithograph, please. I'd love to see it.

Then you had people playing off this wild imagining like the Calvinists who wanted to show wealth was evil so they made up the insane myth you have today and, badabing, you have an American legend. It's the American version of 'let them eat cake.'