The U.S. financial crisis of 1893 that included a severe stock-market collapse and widespread railroad bankruptcies was the Panic of 1893.
The crisis was intensified by the failure of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and by declining confidence in the solvency of railroads and banks. Investors sold securities, businesses failed, and unemployment rose sharply. The collapse of the National Cordage Company became another important sign of the financial distress.
A major political issue was the government’s declining gold reserves. President Grover Cleveland eventually supported a deal with financier J. P. Morgan and other bankers to replenish the Treasury’s gold holdings in 1895. That action helped stabilize the currency, though economic hardship continued.
The Panic of 1893 is distinct from the Panic of 1873, which began in Europe, and the Panic of 1907, which later prompted reforms leading to the creation of the Federal Reserve System.