The Panic of 1792 was the early United States financial crisis that followed speculative securities trading.
The panic developed in March and April 1792 after aggressive speculation in government securities and bank stocks. William Duer and Alexander Macomb were among the speculators who borrowed heavily, and their inability to meet obligations helped spread financial stress through New York and Philadelphia.
The crisis was significant because the young federal financial system was still being built. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton responded by arranging government purchases of securities and lending support through the Bank of the United States. Those actions helped restore confidence and limit the panic.
The episode is sometimes confused with later nineteenth-century panics. Its defining setting was the early republic, only a few years after the Constitution took effect, when American financial markets were small but rapidly expanding.