The Panic of 1873 was the financial crisis commonly associated with the Long Depression, a prolonged period of economic weakness that affected several industrial economies. The panic began in Europe and the United States amid a speculative boom in railways and real estate.
In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a wave of bank failures and a suspension of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Excess railway construction and falling investment returns made the financial system vulnerable.
The crisis spread across the Atlantic and contributed to falling prices, business failures, and unemployment. Historians debate the exact dates and severity of the Long Depression, so the labels are not perfectly interchangeable in every country.
The Panic of 1873 was distinct from the Great Depression, which began after the 1929 stock-market crash. Its importance lies partly in showing how railways, banks, and international capital markets had become interconnected.