Most students of economics know that capitalism was born in the Netherlands during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Holland, in fact, birthed the world's first commodity futures market, and logically, the world's first speculative bubble. The commodity that caused a financial frenzy wasn't gold, silver, tobacco or silk.
It was the tulip.
Tulips were highly valued and sought after as symbols of affluence. Because their bulbs reproduced cloned buds and could be dug up and transported at the end of their season, their "futures" could be traded and speculated upon. In 1636, a highly prized variety of tulip was discovered and cultivated (it was infected with a mosaic virus that gave the flower brilliant striations of color). During a lull in the 30 Years War, the French entered the tulip market, and the bidding on the mosaic-infected varieties took off. The price of the bulbs at its height was 150 times the average yearly earnings for a skilled craftsman or guild member (they formed the majority of speculators). The frenzy became known as the Tulip Mania of 1636, and the flower has become a symbol of rampant speculative fever ever since.
In our era, the symbol should no longer be the undeserving tulip. It rightfully should be the Bush.
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