The 1873 stock-market crash that helped begin the downturn known in the United States as the Long Depression was the Panic of 1873.
The crisis was triggered in part by speculative railroad investment and the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873. Jay Cooke had helped finance the Northern Pacific Railway, and its collapse undermined confidence in banks, railroads, and related securities. The New York Stock Exchange closed temporarily during the panic.
The downturn spread internationally and brought falling prices, business failures, and high unemployment. In the United States, the depression is commonly dated from 1873 to 1879, although definitions and dates vary by country. In Europe, the same broad era was sometimes called the Great Depression until the twentieth-century depression took that name.
The event was not simply a single day of falling share prices. It reflected a wider credit and investment crisis, making it an important predecessor to later financial panics.