You may have heard of the dot com bubble or the real estate bubble, but you've probably never heard of the tulip bubble. That's because it occurred in Holland in the 17th century.
Tulips were introduced to Holland in the 1500s and then became popular with the wealthy Dutch. Along with this, tulip prices increased. The normal bulbs were expensive, but the rare ones were incredibly overpriced. A single Viceroy tulip bulb would sell for the equivalent of 1,250 current US dollars.
Soon, the bulbs were deemed too valuable to even plant and people began simply displaying them. The height of the bubble was in the winter of 1636-37. Tulip vendors were regularly making the equivalent of 61,710 US dollars per month. Then, one day a vendor failed to show up and pay for his purchase. Panic spread across Holland and soon tulip bulbs were worth only a hundredth of their previous price.