Austria’s stock exchange was at the center of the 1873 Panic of 1873.
The crisis began with the Vienna Stock Exchange crash on 9 May 1873, a day known as Black Friday in Austria. Speculative investment had surged during an economic boom, especially in railway and property companies. When confidence broke, share prices collapsed and financial institutions came under pressure.
The panic quickly spread through Europe and reached the United States. In America, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke and Company in September 1873 helped trigger a severe financial contraction. The resulting Long Depression lasted for years, although historians debate its exact dates and severity across different countries.
The event is sometimes confused with the U.S. Panic of 1857 or the Wall Street Panic of 1907. Its international reach reflected the growing integration of capital markets, railways, and banking systems during the nineteenth century.