Tulip mania gripped the Dutch and plunged them into economic ruin. Is a similar mania going to have the same impact on the miraculous business gurus in China? The price of garlic in China has nearly quadrupled since March, propelled by its very pungency to rank ahead of gold and stocks as the country’s best-performing asset this year.
It seems that Chinese folk medicine claims the stronger smelling garlic will ward off swine flu.
The China Daily reported last week that a high school in Hangzhou, a prosperous city in eastern China, had bought 200 kg of garlic and forced students to eat it every day for lunch to stay healthy. Others have been looking for darker forces behind the surge.
China Business News said coal mine bosses had been playing the garlic market, hoarding bulbs and hauling them between storehouses.
In some parts of Shandong province, the wholesale price of garlic is up as much as 40-fold.
How do you say I’d like to sell you some tulip bulbs in Chinese?