Have an idea that it was by Mike Dash "Batavias Graveyard".

I had read another of his:

Thug: The True Story of India's Murderous Cult.

..Which was also horrifically fascinating and unforgettably bleak: you shouldnt go on a holiday your with this as reading material.

Most remarkably on looking this up I find he also wrote:

Tulipomania : The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused

-I don't think this was the one I read on the subject though.