Which 1893 U.S. financial panic helped cause the collapse of the Reading Railroad?

The 1893 U.S. financial panic that helped cause the collapse of the Reading Railroad was the Panic of 1893.

The crisis intensified after the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, commonly called the Reading Railroad, entered receivership in February 1893. A wider loss of confidence followed, with bank failures, business closures, falling investment, and a severe contraction in employment. The crisis was linked to excessive railroad expansion, overleveraged companies, weak commodity prices, and concerns about the U.S. monetary system.

The panic became one of the worst economic downturns in nineteenth-century American history and contributed to the depression of the 1890s. It also helped make the debate over gold and silver central to U.S. politics, especially during the 1896 presidential campaign. The event is sometimes confused with the longer depression that followed; the Panic of 1893 names the financial shock, while the depression describes the broader economic downturn.