Which European stock exchange crash in 1873 helped trigger the long international financial downturn known as the Panic of 1873?

The Vienna Stock Exchange crash helped trigger the international financial downturn known as the Panic of 1873.

On 9 May 1873, often called Black Friday in Austria, speculative prices collapsed on the Vienna exchange. The boom had been fueled by rapid railway construction, easy credit, and heavy property speculation after Austria-Hungary’s economic expansion. When confidence broke, many banks and companies failed.

Financial stress then spread beyond Austria-Hungary. The failure of the American banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 contributed to a panic in the United States, where the New York Stock Exchange temporarily closed. The resulting depression affected Europe and North America for years.

The event is sometimes confused with a single worldwide stock-market crash. In reality, it was a chain of banking, property, railway, and exchange failures whose first major shock came in Vienna.