Which European stock exchange crash on 9 May 1873 helped begin the international Long Depression?

The Vienna Stock Exchange crash on 9 May 1873 helped begin the international Long Depression.

The collapse, known in German as the Gründerkrach, followed a period of intense speculation in Austrian companies and property. When confidence broke, share prices plunged and many banks and businesses failed. The shock spread through financial connections and helped expose excessive borrowing across Europe.

The Vienna crash was followed by financial turmoil in Germany and the United States. In the United States, the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 led to a suspension of trading on the New York Stock Exchange and the Panic of 1873.

Calling the Vienna event the sole cause of the Long Depression would be too simple. Railway speculation, credit expansion, falling prices, and changes in monetary conditions all contributed. The term Long Depression commonly refers to the prolonged downturn beginning in the early 1870s, not to one continuous collapse of every market.