Which U.S. investment bank's collapse is widely regarded as the starting point of the Panic of 1873?

Jay Cooke and Company’s collapse is widely regarded as the starting point of the Panic of 1873.

Jay Cooke and Company was a prominent American investment bank that helped finance the Northern Pacific Railway. On 18 September 1873, the firm failed after it could not sell enough Northern Pacific bonds. The failure damaged confidence in railway finance and contributed to a wider banking panic in the United States.

The crisis also had international connections. The Vienna Stock Exchange crash earlier in 1873 helped spread financial stress in Europe, while speculative railway investment and tight credit affected markets across the Atlantic. In the United States, the panic led to a long depression, bank failures, falling prices, and high unemployment. Jay Cooke’s failure is described as the starting point of the American panic, but the wider downturn had multiple causes, including overbuilding, excessive leverage, and fragile financial institutions.