Which exchange suffered the first major crash of the 1873 Panic, helping spread the crisis across Europe?

The Vienna Stock Exchange suffered the first major crash of the 1873 Panic, helping spread the crisis across Europe.

On May 9, 1873, a speculative boom in Austria-Hungary ended in a severe collapse at the Vienna exchange. The event became known as the Gründerkrach, or founders’ crash. It followed years of rapid railway construction, company formation, credit expansion, and property speculation after financial reforms and investment growth.

The shock moved through interconnected European financial markets and soon reached the United States, where the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a major American panic. Economic weakness then persisted for years in several industrial economies.

The Panic of 1873 is closely associated with the Long Depression, though historians debate the exact boundaries and severity of that depression. Another common mix-up is confusing Vienna’s May crash with the later New York banking panic. Vienna’s exchange was the earlier flashpoint in the sequence.