The 1893 U.S. financial crisis, worsened by railroad failures and bank runs, was called the Panic of 1893.
The crisis followed years of aggressive railroad expansion and speculative investment. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad entered receivership in February 1893, and the failure of the National Cordage Company in May intensified concerns about corporate debt. Investors and depositors began demanding cash and gold.
Several hundred banks and dozens of railroads failed during the depression that followed. The United States also experienced a major gold-reserve crisis because of uncertainty over silver policy and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. President Grover Cleveland later worked with financiers to restore the Treasury’s gold reserves.
The Panic of 1893 produced severe unemployment and business contraction. It is distinct from the Panic of 1873, which began amid a European financial crisis, and from the Panic of 1907, which helped motivate creation of the Federal Reserve. The depression lasted for much of the decade.