tulipomania

plural tulipomanias

1. uncountableHyperenthusiasm for tulips.
2. countableuncountableSuch enthusiasm (or the period of its duration) during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed (1634–1637); it is widely considered the first speculative bubble (asset bubble).

   Certainly one of the best illustrations of the fantastic in the motley variety of items that avarice might seize for its own is the tulipomania that swept over the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

   1989, Stanford M. Lyman, The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil, page 250

   1 more example

   [I]n 1646, during the phenomenon known as "Tulipomania", a tulip like the red and white 'Admirael van der Eijck', or the purple-splashed 'Generalen van Gouda' would sell for more than 1,000 Dutch florins, at a time when the average annual income of a skilled worker was about 300 florins.

   2014 September 26, Charles Quest-Ritson, “The Dutch garden where tulip bulbs live forever: Hortus Bulborum, a volunteer-run Dutch garden, is dedicated to conserving historic varieties before they vanish for good [print version: Inspired by a living bulb archive, 27 September 2014, p. G5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening)