In 1623, a single bulb of a famous tulip variety could cost as much as a thousand Dutch florins (the average yearly income at the time was 150 florins). Tulips were also exchanged for land, valuable livestock, and houses. Allegedly, a good trader could earn six thousand florins a month.
By 1635, a sale of 40 bulbs for 100,000 florins was recorded. By way of comparison, a ton of butter cost around 100 florins and "eight fat swine" 240 florins. A record was the sale of the most famous bulb, the Semper Augustus, for 6,000 florins in Haarlem.
By 1636, tulips were traded on the stock exchanges of numerous Dutch towns and cities. This encouraged trading in tulips by all members of society, with many people selling or trading their other possessions in order to speculate in the tulip market. Somespeculators made large profits as a result. Others lost all or even more than they had.
Some traders sold tulip bulbs that had only just been planted or those they intended to plant (in effect, tulip futures contracts). This phenomenon was dubbed windhandel, or "wind trade", and took place mostly in the taverns of small towns using an arcane slate system to indicate bid prices. (The term windhandel is similar to the recent term vaporware: both have much the same metaphor.) A state edict from 1610 (well before the alleged bubble) made that trade illegal by refusing to enforce the contracts, but the legislation failed to curtail the activity.
In February 1637 tulip traders could no longer get inflated prices for their bulbs, and they began to sell. The bubble burst. People began to suspect that the demand for tulips could not last, and as this spread a panic developed. Some were left holding contracts to purchase tulips at prices now ten times greater than those on the open market, while others found themselves in possession of bulbs now worth a fraction of the price they had paid. Allegedly, thousands of Dutch, including businessmen and dignitaries, were financially ruined.
Attempts were made to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of all parties, but these were unsuccessful. Ultimately, individuals were stuck with the bulbs they held at the end of the crash—no court would enforce payment of a contract, since judges regarded the debts as contracted through gambling, and thus not enforceable in law.
The aftermath of the tulip price deflation led to a widespread economic chill throughout the Netherlands for a number of years afterwards, resulting in what we would describe today as a mild or moderate economic depression. (Galbraith 1990, p. 34)
Lesser versions of the tulipomania also occurred in other parts of Europe, although matters never reached the state they had in the Netherlands. In England in 1800, it was common to pay fifteen guineas for a single tulip bulb. This sum would have kept a labourer and his family in food, clothes and lodging for six months.
Charles Mackay, in his book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds", tells a story of the time:
A wealthy merchant had paid 3,000 florins (280 pounds sterling) for a rare Semper Augustus tulip bulb, and it disappeared from his warehouse. After thoroughly searching his warehouse, he saw a sailor (who had mistaken the tulip bulb for an onion) eating it. The sailor was promptly arrested and spent months in jail.
-Courtesy of Wikipedia
I'm sure greenpeace is gonna love this chart, describing all the delicious parts to eat from a Whale.
This old guy is roasting Uni (Sea-Urchin) inside clam shells on a charcoal grill. At 500 yen a pop, it was a very delicious treat that I have tried to duplicate myself at home. Lets just say I wasted $25 worth of uni, and it it came out horribly.
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3 bad boys right before they were eaten.
Check out this crazy ass poster- apparently, you can get sea turtle, penguin, or coelacanth meat for the right price. Hmmmm....
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Yes, this is dolphin meat. Ewww....
Delicious local snow crabs, fresh from the ocean.
Capping of a fine day with a bowl of crab miso soup.
