Vienna gave its name to the stock-market crash that helped begin the Panic of 1873.
The Vienna Stock Exchange crash occurred in May 1873, after a speculative boom in Austrian companies and property. On May 9, known as Black Friday in Vienna, panic selling caused prices to collapse. The crash damaged banks and businesses and undermined confidence in financial markets.
The crisis soon spread through international financial connections. Problems in Austria-Hungary were followed by distress in Germany and then the United States, where the failure of the investment bank Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a major panic. The resulting depression was long and international, although historians debate its exact duration and regional pattern.
The Panic of 1873 was not caused by one exchange alone. Excessive railway speculation, high leverage, bank failures, and a contraction of credit all played roles. The Vienna crash is important because it marked the first visible break in a broader transatlantic speculative cycle.