Vienna’s stock exchange was the starting point of the Panic of 1873.
The crisis erupted in Vienna in May 1873, when speculative excesses culminated in the stock-market crash known as the Gründerkrach. The collapse followed a period of rapid investment and company formation after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. Many enterprises had been created amid intense speculation, and confidence evaporated when investors began selling.
Financial stress then spread through Europe and across the Atlantic. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a major American panic. The New York Stock Exchange temporarily closed for the first time, remaining shut for about ten days.
The Panic of 1873 is often linked to the Long Depression, a prolonged period of weak prices and economic difficulty. It was not one isolated event with identical effects everywhere; banking systems and recovery dates varied by country.