The 1893 U.S. financial crisis that caused widespread bank failures and helped push the country into a severe depression was the Panic of 1893.
The panic followed the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and growing concerns about railroad finances, silver policy, and the country’s gold reserves. Investors sold securities, businesses failed, and banks faced runs. The crisis spread beyond Wall Street into the wider economy.
Unemployment rose sharply, and many railroads entered bankruptcy. The depression that followed lasted for several years and became one of the most serious economic downturns in nineteenth-century America. The panic also intensified political conflict over whether the United States should expand silver coinage.
The Panic of 1893 is distinct from the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1907. Although financial instability began in markets, its effects included industrial contraction, falling prices, labor unrest, and hardship across the United States.