The Panic of 1873 helped begin the Long Depression in Europe and North America.
The crisis followed speculative booms in railways, land, and construction. In the United States, the failure of the investment firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 undermined confidence and led to a suspension of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Banking stress also spread through Europe, where the Vienna stock-market crash of May 1873 was an important early shock.
The resulting downturn brought bankruptcies, falling prices, and prolonged weakness in investment and employment. Historians debate the exact duration and naming of the Long Depression, but the Panic of 1873 is widely treated as its starting point. It was not a single-day stock-market event; it was an international financial crisis with several connected centers.