The Panic of 1873 is commonly described as the first major international stock-market crash, beginning with Vienna’s exchange collapse.
On May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed after a period of speculative expansion. Financial stress then spread to Germany and the United States, where the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September intensified the panic.
The downturn was connected to excessive investment in railways, real estate, and other ventures, along with changing credit conditions. It developed into a long global economic contraction often called the Long Depression, although historians debate the exact boundaries and severity of that label.
The panic was international because capital markets and railway finance had become increasingly connected across borders. It is sometimes confused with the Long Depression itself: the Panic of 1873 names the financial shock, while the Long Depression refers to the extended period of economic weakness that followed.