The 1873 financial crisis that began with failures in European and American markets was the Panic of 1873.
The crisis was connected to speculative railway investment, excessive expansion of credit, and problems in European financial markets. The collapse of the Vienna stock exchange in May 1873 helped spread fear, while the failure of the investment bank Jay Cooke & Company in the United States in September intensified the panic.
The resulting downturn contributed to a long period of weak growth and falling prices often called the Long Depression. Terminology varies by country: in the United States, the financial panic is usually dated to 1873, while Britain’s prolonged economic weakness is often discussed separately. The Panic of 1893 was another major U.S. crisis two decades later, so the two dates and names are frequently mixed up.