Which 1873 crash began in Vienna and helped trigger a long global depression?

The 1873 crash that began in Vienna and helped trigger a long global depression was the Panic of 1873.

The crisis began with the Vienna Stock Exchange crash on May 9, 1873, known as Black Friday in Austria. Speculative investment in railways and property had pushed prices upward, while the collapse of the European market for securities exposed heavily indebted banks and companies.

Financial distress spread to Germany and then across the Atlantic. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped spark a major panic and a suspension of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The downturn affected industry, railroads, employment, and prices.

The resulting period is often called the Long Depression, although historians debate its precise dates and whether “depression” is the best label. It was not the same event as the Panic of 1893, which also involved railroads and banking but occurred two decades later.