HES: RE: RVW--Neal on Goldgar, _Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age_

[Mason Gaffney]

Re Neal's review of Goldgar on Tulipmania, it seems rather niggling of
Goldgar to tear into Shiller for a short footnote while ignoring his work
with Eichholtz on real estate cycles on the Dutch Herengracht district,
synchronized with the tulip bubble. Shiller, alas, has gone commercial,
which may end his very promising academic work in real estate cycles.

I hope that Neal will reconsider his statement that 1636-37 was "the first
speculative bubble in the history of western capitalism". See for example
Michael Veseth, 1990, *Mountains of Debt*, on Renaissance Florence. M.E.
Levasseur, 1892, surveyed boom and bust in French land values over 6
centuries. Levasseur, M.E., 1892.  Les Prix.  Aperçu de l'Histoire
Économique de la Valeur et du Revenue de la Terre en France.  13th-18th
cents.  Extrait des Mémoires de la Société Nationale d'Agriculture de
France.  Tome 135, 1893.  Paris: Typographie Chamerot et Renouard, 1893.  

Mason Gaffney