In his book, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, he mentioned Tulip mania only briefly in a footnote: Kindleberger, who wrote extensively on manias and bubbles, dismissed Tulip mania. Having all of those historical elements included would be too much for any Austrian to hope for.Įminent economic historian Charles P. While there was no mention of the Bank of Amsterdam’s free coinage laws attracting bullion from around the world and driving deposits upward by 60 percent, I was enthralled. However, for someone who knows a bit about Tulip mania and yearns for economic stories to be told on film - with three academy award winners no less (plus Zach Galifianakis) - this movie is spectacular.ĭirector Justin Chadwick accurately offers a bustling Amsterdam, where commerce, from fish to flesh to spices, is taking place every few steps. Then February 2017, and finally to this past weekend.Ĭritics are savaging the film. Tulip Fever was finally in the can in 2014 and slated to open in November 2015, capitalizing on Alicia Vikander’s star power (she won an Oscar for The Danish Girl). As Weinstein wrote in an op-ed prior to the film’s release, “ Everything was going swimmingly, sets were being built, everyone was excited, and then BAM! The British government changed the tax law, and a movie that started with a $30 million budget doubled to $60 million and we had to close it down.” It’s taken nearly two decades to get Moggach’s story to the screen, with Spielberg partnering with Harvey Weinstein to bring it to fruition with plenty of bumps along the way. Imaginative enough that Steven Spielberg called the author before the book was even published in 1999 and said he wanted to film it.” In my 2008 review of the book, I pointed out “ Moggach brings Tulip mania to life and continually surprises the reader with an imaginative plot.

It’s taken nearly two decades to get Moggach’s story to the screen.

However, the average moviegoer was not curious about “ Tulip Fever ” the movie as it grossed short of $1.2 million over its opening (Labor Day) weekend, only good enough for the 24th place, against less than stiff cinematic competition like “The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature.” “Tulip Fever” the book was a bestseller in 1999. Amsterdam’s Tulip Fever has been a curiosity of economists for centuries.

Tulip fever book review