The 1893 U.S. financial panic that triggered a severe depression and the failure of more than 500 banks was the Panic of 1893.
The crisis followed the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and growing concerns about railroad overbuilding, silver policy, and the solvency of financial institutions. The failure of the National Cordage Company intensified the panic in May 1893.
Banks suspended payments, businesses failed, and unemployment rose sharply. The depression lasted for several years and became one of the worst economic downturns in nineteenth-century United States history.
The Panic of 1893 is sometimes confused with the Panic of 1873, which began a different long downturn, or the Panic of 1907, which later helped motivate the creation of the Federal Reserve. The 1893 episode also contributed to the political prominence of the free-silver debate.