Which stock exchange saw the first major shock of the Panic of 1873 on 9 May 1873?

The Vienna Stock Exchange saw the first major shock of the Panic of 1873 on 9 May 1873.

That date became known as Black Friday in Austria. A speculative boom had encouraged rapid investment in railways, property, and companies, particularly after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. When confidence broke, share prices in Vienna collapsed and many banks and firms failed.

The disturbance spread internationally. Financial pressure reached Germany and the United States, where the failure of the investment bank Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a major American panic. The resulting long downturn is often called the Long Depression, although historians debate its exact boundaries and severity.

Black Friday in Vienna should not be confused with the U.S. gold-market crisis of September 1869 or the retail-shopping expression used today. In this historical context, it refers to the 1873 Vienna market collapse and its international financial consequences.