The 1873 financial crisis that began with stock-market collapses in Vienna and New York was the Panic of 1873.
The crisis followed years of railway speculation and rapid industrial expansion. The failure of the investment firm Jay Cooke & Company in the United States in September 1873 helped trigger a panic on the New York Stock Exchange. In Europe, the Vienna Stock Exchange crash of May 1873 had already shaken confidence.
The panic contributed to a prolonged period of weak prices, reduced investment, bank failures, and high unemployment. In the United States, the downturn is often associated with the Long Depression, although historians debate its exact duration and severity.
The Panic of 1873 is sometimes confused with the Panic of 1893, another major U.S. financial crisis. The earlier event was international from the outset, linking financial instability in Central Europe with American railway and banking problems.