Which exchange recorded the first major collapse in the Panic of 1873?

The Vienna Stock Exchange recorded the first major collapse in the Panic of 1873.

On May 9, 1873, a speculative boom in Austria-Hungary ended in a severe crash known as the Gründerkrach, or Founders’ Crash. Share prices had risen rapidly after financial expansion and an investment boom. When confidence failed, selling overwhelmed the Vienna Stock Exchange.

The shock spread through European financial markets and later reached the United States. In America, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke and Company in September 1873 helped trigger a crisis that closed the New York Stock Exchange temporarily. The resulting depression brought bank failures, business failures, falling prices, and high unemployment across several countries.

The Panic of 1873 is often linked to the end of the railway and construction boom that followed the Franco-Prussian War. It also exposed the risks of speculative financing and overextended banks. Calling New York the starting point is a common mistake: the crisis had already erupted in Vienna months before the U.S. panic intensified.