Which European stock exchange crash of 1873 helped begin the international financial downturn known as the Long Depression?

The Vienna Stock Exchange crash of 1873 helped begin the international financial downturn known as the Long Depression.

On May 9, 1873, panic struck Vienna’s stock exchange after a period of intense speculation in shares and real estate. The collapse followed rapid economic expansion, easy credit, and exuberant investment after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise and the unification of Germany. Many securities became sharply overvalued.

The panic spread through financial connections and contributed to banking failures and economic contraction in Europe. Turmoil also reached the United States, where the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a major American panic.

Historians debate the exact boundaries and preferred name of the ensuing downturn. “Long Depression” is widely used for the extended period of weak prices and growth from the 1870s into the 1890s, although its severity varied by country. The 1873 panic should not be confused with the separate Panic of 1893.