2019 May Be A Testing Time

Anyone with Gibraltar wealth management concerns will almost certainly be dipping into the very depths of their patience presently as they await resolution of their status during the protracted and uncertain times of Brexit negotiation.

The British Overseas Territory on the south coast of Spain, affectionately referred to as “the Rock”, has long been both an idyllic international outpost and a source of contention between the UK and Spain. This fact has been somewhat compounded by Brexit, with Spain using talks as an opportunity to lay down new demands over the headland’s status.

While Spain has agreed that it will not seek to push for full sovereignty over the territory during negotiations, the latest development concerns Spain’s desire to have the EU make specific provision for the future status of Gibraltar as part of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The later part of the 20th century saw its fair share of financial bubbles. There was the property bubble, stock market bubbles, and then the dot com bubble of 2000, just to name a few. In each instance, people paid exorbitant amounts for things that shouldn’t have been worth anything like the going price. But this is nothing new – look back at the Dutch in the 17th century when already pricey tulip bulbs experienced a twentyfold price explosion in just a single month.

By the peak of tulipmania in February 1637, a single tulip bulb was worth about ten times a craftsman’s annual income and a single Viceroy tulip bulb was allegedly exchanged for eight fat swine, twelve fat sheep or four tuns of beer.