Which exchange suffered the “Black Friday” crash that helped begin the Panic of 1873?

The Vienna Stock Exchange suffered the “Black Friday” crash that helped begin the Panic of 1873.

On May 9, 1873, panic selling hit Vienna after a speculative boom in shares and real estate. The collapse followed the Vienna World’s Fair and exposed excessive investment, weakly regulated credit, and inflated valuations. The event became known in German-speaking Europe as Gründerkrach, or the founders’ crash.

Financial distress spread through interconnected European markets and later reached the United States. In America, the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 contributed to the closure of the New York Stock Exchange for several days.

The Panic of 1873 is also associated with the beginning of the Long Depression, although historians debate its exact duration and geographic boundaries. It should not be confused with the 1929 crash, which began in New York more than half a century later.