Hi Michaelangelica,
I just came across some post modern revisionism on Wiki.
Quote:
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Given data about the specific payoffs present in the futures and option contracts, the authors determine that tulip bulb prices in fact hewed closely to what a rational economic model would dictate: "tulip contract prices before, during, and after the 'tulipmania' appear to provide a remarkable illustration of market efficiency."
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But the tulip mania started around 1623 (when a single bulb could cost 1000 florins) and ended in 1637, running for a total period of 14 years. The South Sea bubble went from 1711 to 1720, a total of 9 years for another major bubble (as a percentage of all money traded).
I think the politicians realised that their 'buddies' could surf the ever continuing and increasing rate of new waves of bubbles, jumping from the top of one before it got stale, onto another waiting for new suckers, continuing to tip a part of their ill gotten gains into the packets of their benefactors all along the way.
