The 1873 financial crisis that triggered a long depression in Europe and North America was the Panic of 1873.
The crisis began with the failure of the Vienna-based investment company Gründerkrach in May 1873 and intensified after the collapse of Jay Cooke & Company in the United States in September. Jay Cooke had helped finance Northern Pacific Railway bonds, and its failure damaged confidence in railroad investment.
The panic contributed to a prolonged economic downturn often called the Long Depression. Stock exchanges, banks, railways, and industrial companies were affected on both sides of the Atlantic. The New York Stock Exchange temporarily closed for the first time in its history, from September 20 to September 29, 1873.
The Panic of 1873 is sometimes confused with the later Panic of 1893, another major U.S. financial crisis linked to railroad failures. The 1873 event is also associated with the collapse of speculative railway expansion and changing monetary conditions after the Franco-Prussian War.