With luck, China’s bursting stock bubble will come to be seen as merely a rite of passage. Throughout the history of capitalism, the anointing of a new hegemon — and the consequent rush of funds to the next financial centre — was often greeted with a speculative binge.
When Holland wrested leadership from the northern Italian city states, its merchants took to gambling on canals, drainage projects and tulip bulbs. Then, after borrowing the Dutch king for a spell, London took over from Amsterdam, a process marked by the inflation and collapse of the South Sea Bubble.
New York’s rise to the top was punctuated by manias and panics, culminating in the greatest stock market collapse of them all in October 1929.
您已阅读13%（713字），剩余87%（4814字）包含更多重要信息，订阅以继续探索完整内容，并享受更多专属服务。