Which U.S. financial firm’s collapse triggered the Panic of 1873 in the United States?

Jay Cooke & Company’s collapse helped trigger the Panic of 1873 in the United States.

The Philadelphia-based investment bank failed on September 18, 1873, after it could not sell enough bonds connected with the Northern Pacific Railway. The failure undermined confidence in railroad finance, an industry that had attracted heavy speculation and extensive borrowing after the American Civil War.

The panic spread through banks and stock markets. The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days, from September 20 to September 29, 1873, as financial institutions faced withdrawals and investors rushed to sell securities. The resulting depression affected the United States and several European economies.

Jay Cooke & Company was not the only cause. Excess railway construction, speculative investment, tight credit, and financial problems in Europe all contributed. The event is also sometimes called the Long Depression’s starting point, although historians debate the exact boundaries and severity of that depression.