The 1873 financial crisis that began a long period of deflation and depression in many countries was the Panic of 1873.
The panic began in Vienna in May 1873 and reached the United States after the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September. Jay Cooke had financed railroads, and its collapse helped trigger bank failures, a stock-market sell-off, and a suspension of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The ensuing downturn is often called the Long Depression, although historians debate the label and its exact duration. Falling prices and weak investment affected railways, agriculture, manufacturing, and employment across several countries.
The 1873 event is sometimes confused with the Panic of 1893 because both involved railroad finance and severe U.S. economic disruption. The later crisis had different immediate triggers, including the failure of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and concerns about U.S. silver policy.