Anne Goldgar wrote a fascinating book about it about 8 or 9 years . The tulip bubble was very limited to very limited set of people. The popular notion of the bubble is from a book in 1841 by Charles Mackey. The book, called madness of the crowds, was poorly researched by today's standards. Goldgar's subsequent research has shown this to be less than accurate. Those involved in the tulip craze were hurt, but the idea that weavers and others were leaving their jobs to collect tulips is just not true. While some bankruptcies did occur, it wasn't the economic meltdown that has entered into the public imagination(1) .The 1619-23 debasement of metals in Europe was a possible contender for the first true bubble. Known as the kipper and wipper inflation (kipper und wipper in German), it predates the tulip mania. It was caused by the states of the holy roman empire debasing their coins with less valuable metals to raise money for the 30 years war. This spread across europe as a monetary crisis with hyperinflation taking hold(2). Martha White Paas wrote a fascinating piece on it not to long ago, I however have only read excerpts of it so i wont add its content to this. Other early bubbles like the Mississippi company, the Scottish Darien company, and the south sea company wrecked national economies. Goldgars research shows that tulip mania, however wasn't as big a deal as previously believed.

1. Ruppel, Sophie. Rezension Zu: Goldgar, Anne: Tulipmania. Money, Honour and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age, Chicago 2007.

Dash, Mike. ""Kipper Und Wipper": Rogue Traders, Rogue Princes, Rogue Bishops and the German Financial Meltdown of 1621-23." Smithsonian. March 23, 2012. Accessed April 26, 2015. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kipper-und-wipper-rogue-traders-rogue-princes-rogue-bishops-and-the-german-financial-meltdown-of-1621-23-167320079/?no-ist=.