The 1857 financial panic that began in the United States and spread through international markets was the Panic of 1857.
The crisis followed the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company in August 1857. That failure exposed weaknesses in American finance, while the collapse of speculative railroad investments and related businesses intensified distrust.
The panic spread beyond the United States, affecting financial markets in Europe and other regions. The financial shock was severe, although the downturn was not as long as some later nineteenth-century depressions. The American economy also faced disruption from falling railroad activity and commodity prices.
The Panic of 1857 is sometimes linked to the SS Central America disaster because the ship was carrying gold from California when it sank in September 1857. That loss reduced available confidence and liquidity, but the shipwreck was one contributing event rather than the sole cause of the panic.