The 1873 financial panic that began in Vienna and helped trigger a long depression was the Panic of 1873.
The crisis became acute after the Vienna stock exchange crash on May 9, 1873, a date remembered as Black Friday in Austria. Speculative investment had surged during an era of railway construction, property development, and rapid industrial expansion.
The Vienna shock spread through financial connections, including to Germany and the United States. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger the collapse of confidence and the temporary closure of the New York Stock Exchange.
Historians debate the exact boundaries and causes of the ensuing Long Depression. The downturn involved falling prices, bankruptcies, unemployment, and reduced investment, rather than one uniform experience in every country.