Tulip Bulbs, Bored Apes and Bubbles

The Dutch tulip bulb market bubble, also known as tulipmania, was one of the most famous market bubbles and crashes of all time. It occurred in Holland during the early to mid-1600s, when speculation is claimed to have driven the value of tulip bulbs to extreme levels. At the market’s peak, the rarest tulip bulbs traded for as much as six times the average person’s annual salary.

Today, the story of tulipmania serves as a parable for the pitfalls that excessive greed and speculation in investing can lead to.

The story of tulip-mania gained popular attention in 1841 with the publication of the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, written by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay, who wrote that at one point 5 hectares (12 acres) of land were offered for a single tulip bulb. Mackay claimed that many investors were ruined by the fall in prices, and Dutch commerce suffered a severe shock. Although Mackay's book is a classic, many modern historians believe that the mania was not as extreme as he described.

More interestingly Mackay lived through three much bigger speculative bubbles in his lifetime in railway stocks, and not only did he not recognize them as bubbles, but he participated in them.

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[jacob_s]

Patrick, I know it's a small thing, but please put in the description if a video is a reupload and what was changed (if anything). Really helps avoid confusion.

[ROMANTIKILLER]

So, what we can learn from this story is:
- the more things change, the more they stay the same.
- do not trust excited influencers.

[Anrirua]

Patrick, is it too late to plant tulips or should I wait for the dip when winter is coming?
Do you think digital pictures of tulips might fare better than dirty, tangible bulbs? Asking for a friend.

[rick]

I appreciated that Patrick opened by illustrating that tulip bulbs at least have some utility.

[tiffanyclay]

Ive actually done that…. Dug up a tulip bulb in me garden, sautéed it up and…. Ate the most peculiar tasting “onion” ever

[_..-.._..-.._]

The sponsor sounds horrible. The last thing we need is more people getting the bare facts from books without reading them. Just read the damn book!

[Saufsldat]

I left my NFT lying around on a USB drive. One of my employees happened to need a thumb drive and grabbed mine. He then posted the NFT on Twitter and people started screenshotting it. I am ruined, but the employee is fortunately serving a 20 year prison sentence.

[GrammarSplaining]

1:33 "Tulipmania is a great story." So great we posted it twice!

[debbino]

I love this man. If I had the kind of money he is capable of overseeing, he would be my go-to person. The depth of understanding he shares in a manner a novice can appreciate makes him #1 in the YouTube world. Anyone who has done some digging and landed here, consider yourself to have struck gold.

[achessjourney]

This is one of the most interesting finance videos i've ever watched. Thanks, Patrick.

[loveisallinside]

No one loves talking about tulips more than this guy

[ayde]

Several questions If I can (open to anyone):
1.) The neatherlands to this day remains the largest exporter of flowers in the world (their tulip market still remains substantial).
2.) Calvanism and protestantism in general had divergent views of usury mandates which lead to converts, but also towards a bit of an economic renaissance for those cultures and peoples who adopted it, no? In essence, Catholicism to this day venerates poverty and considers the accumulation of wealth as inherently evil. The economic history of europe is influenced by the treatment of Usury laws and norms (the relaxation of which coupled with the mass redistribution of wealth after one of the great plagues eventually lead to the renaissance for instance). Meanwhile, the entire history of Spain consolidating wealth was in a cycle of allowing relaxed usury laws for those who did not practice catholicism until these groups gained an economic foothold, and then they would persecute and expell those people and amass their economic holdings monopolizing on the investments of those peoples. Calvanism itself, as a protestant variation's main draw was its' justification that "work is good" and far from god loving you more when you're impoverished: calvanists believed that being sucessful and rich was proof that god favored you. It was the theological beginnings of "greed is good". I suppose what I'm setting up is: how did the book approach the criticisms of the tulip bubble as propoghanda?

[couch]

Am I getting flashbacks? Or did another YouTuber talk about this somewhat recently lol

[BellTunnel]

Say what you will about tulips, but the eloquent WhatsApp advisor I met in the comments has got me 20 large into the next wave of Beanie Babies and I’m confident of my future returns. 😊

[uselessDM]

I guess Mackay had reason to believe that the railway bubble wasn't a bubble because something tangiable was built and the whole thing wasn't just about something superfluous as tulips. In that sense he probably was even mislead by his own ideas about Tulipmania and what he thought about he knew about bubbles.
Unless he was just misleading people for his own personal gain of course.

[xTripleAcex]

Very interesting perspective on bubbles and fact-checking of the tulipmania story, thanks

[lanceprud]

Patrick was so focused on his presentation he forgot to blink for 26 minutes.

[kevinrc]

Because Diamonds last forever, the diamond "craze" is still here to this day. There is a still a difference in price between synthetic and real diamonds. Since things like diamond, art, etc. exists. People will tend to create the next best thing such as tulips.

[monaoconnell]

Very interesting. Glad you are back. Hope to hear more from you.

[JonnyBanana]

A cutting edge technology that is not just a technology but a monumental revolution? Where did I heard that...