The 1873 stock-market panic began in Vienna before spreading through Europe and the United States.
On May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed after years of speculative expansion in shares, property, and railway ventures. The collapse became known as the Gründerkrach, or founders’ crash, and it undermined confidence in banks and companies across the Austro-Hungarian financial system.
Financial stress then spread internationally. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a major American panic, followed by a long depression. Railway overbuilding, easy credit, and speculative investment were important background conditions.
The event is sometimes called the Long Depression, although historians debate the exact boundaries and severity of that depression. Vienna was the starting point of the financial shock, not the only market affected, and the crisis ultimately crossed the Atlantic.