Tulip Mania vs. The Dot-Com Bubble
What They Share
Both are textbook examples of speculative bubbles: an asset (tulip bulbs; internet stocks) attracts intense buying based on expected future gains rather than underlying value, prices spiral upward on herd enthusiasm, and the market ultimately corrects sharply.
Where They Differ
Tulip Mania involved a physical, non-productive luxury good traded in a localized, informal market over a matter of months. The dot-com bubble involved shares in companies (some genuinely productive, most not) traded on formal global stock exchanges over several years — a difference in scale, formality, and duration, even as the underlying speculative psychology looks remarkably similar.