The 1893 U.S. financial crisis was called the Panic of 1893.
The panic developed after years of railroad expansion and speculative investment. The failure of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in February 1893 weakened confidence, and the collapse of the National Cordage Company intensified fear. Bank runs followed, while investors sold stocks and bonds to obtain cash.
The crisis became one of the most severe depressions in nineteenth-century United States history. Unemployment rose, businesses failed, and railroad companies entered bankruptcy. The panic also became entangled with political arguments over the gold standard and the nation’s currency system.
The event is sometimes confused with the Panic of 1873, which also involved railways and preceded a long international downturn. The Panic of 1893 was a separate crisis, occurring twenty years later. Its political consequences included stronger debate over monetary policy and helped shape the 1896 presidential election.