Financial crises past and present

Tulip mania: In the 17th century, the demand for tulip bulbs was so great that £400 was paid for a single bulb. The bubble burst when traders sold and panic took hold Photograph: Imagno/Getty

A satirical illustration by William Hogarth of the South Sea bubble bursting. In 1720, the South Sea Company agreed to finance the British government's debts in exchange for exclusive trading rights in the South Seas. Unfortunately, a clause in a treaty with Spain limited the number of ships that could go to the South Sea from Britain each year Photograph: Corbis

October 24 1929: People gather on the sub-treasury building steps across from the New York Stock Exchange on Black Thursday. Thousands of investors lost their savings in the stock market crash after a five-day frenzy of heavy trading. Too much speculation with borrowed money had inflated market values unrealistically Photograph: AP

1930: The homeless and unemployed seek shelter in New York during in the Great Depression Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Gold in the vaults of the Bank of London. In 1945, Britain came close to bankruptcy after the second world war, but recovered thanks to loans from the US Photograph: Hans Wild/Time & Life/Getty

14 January 1974: A driver pleads his case to police officers who saw his car parked outside the petrol depot at Belfort, France. Security had been stepped up at the depot following sabotage attacks amid oil shortages caused by Opec refusing to sell oil to the west Photograph: Keystone/Getty

19 October 1987: Panic on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as the Dow Jones dropped more than 500 points - the largest decline in modern times amid frenzied selling. On Black Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock barometer plunged 22.61% to 1,738.41 points Photograph: Maria Bastone/AFP/Getty

16 September 1992: Norman Lamont, Conservative chancellor, and Robin Leigh-Pemberton leave the Treasury after being forced out of the European exchange rate mechanism Photograph: Frank Baron/Guardian

1992: Sterling dealers on the trading floor of NatWest's foreign exchange department at Bishopsgate, London, work as the pound remains in the danger zone of Europe's exchange rate mechanism Photograph: Jim James/PA

28 October 1997: A trader from the London International Financial Futures Exchange takes a break from the trading floor. Share prices rallied sharply at midday for a net loss of 4.99% from a slump of 9.46% in early trading, but slipped shortly before Wall Street opened to a loss of 6.17% Photograph: Johnny Eggitt/AFP

September 1 2004: The dotcom bubble bursts. Protesters line up from Wall Street to Madison Square Garden with pink slips to bring attention to the loss of jobs during George Bush's presidency Photograph: Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty

16 September 2008: A broker under the German DAX stock index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The leading share index dropped to a three-year low around midday, hit by more falls in stocks a day after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Photograph: Boris Roessler/EPA