The worldwide economic downturn that began after the Panic of 1873 is commonly called the Long Depression.
The panic started in Vienna and spread to other financial centers, including New York, where the failure of Jay Cooke & Company helped trigger a major market collapse. Railways had attracted heavy investment, and the failure of important financial institutions weakened confidence in banks, companies, and securities.
Historians debate the downturn’s exact duration and whether “depression” should describe the entire period. In Britain it is often dated from 1873 to 1896, while the United States experienced a severe contraction followed by recoveries and renewed downturns. Industrial production and prices did not move uniformly across countries.
The Long Depression is frequently confused with the Great Depression, which began after the 1929 crash. The earlier crisis instead belongs to the nineteenth-century era of railway expansion, falling prices, business failures, and intense debate over monetary policy.