The 1873 crash that began in Vienna and helped trigger a long global downturn was called the Panic of 1873.
A speculative boom in railways, construction, and property had expanded rapidly in Europe and North America. On May 9, 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed, an event known as the Gründerkrach. Financial stress then spread to Germany and the United States, where the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company led to the temporary closure of the New York Stock Exchange in September.
The subsequent downturn is often called the Long Depression. It was marked by falling prices, business failures, unemployment, and weaker investment, although its severity and duration varied by country. Economic historians debate exactly when it ended.
The Panic of 1873 is sometimes confused with the Long Depression because the terms describe different things. The panic refers to the financial crisis and market collapse; the depression refers to the extended period of economic weakness that followed.