The financial crisis that began in 1873 and triggered a prolonged depression across Europe and North America was the Panic of 1873.
The panic followed speculative investment in railways, property, and industrial companies. In Vienna, the failure of the banking firm Allgemeine Österreichische Boden-Credit-Anstalt helped trigger the May 1873 stock-market crash known as the Gründerkrach. In the United States, the failure of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 caused widespread fear and a major market collapse.
The crisis spread through interconnected financial markets and was followed by years of weak growth, falling prices, and business failures. Historians debate the exact duration and whether the period should be called a depression or a long deflationary downturn.
It is distinct from the Panic of 1893, which also involved railroad failures and banking distress but began two decades later. The 1873 crisis also contributed to a shift away from the post-Civil War investment boom.