Which U.S. market panic began after the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in 1873?

The U.S. market panic that began after Jay Cooke & Company failed in 1873 was the Panic of 1873.

Jay Cooke & Company was a major American investment bank that had financed railroad expansion. Its failure on September 18, 1873, damaged confidence in the financial system and helped trigger a broader panic. The New York Stock Exchange temporarily suspended trading.

Railroad speculation was central to the crisis. Overbuilding, excessive borrowing, and falling confidence made heavily financed companies vulnerable. The panic spread beyond the United States and became part of the wider Long Depression.

The Panic of 1873 is sometimes grouped with European financial events of the same year, but the American banking failure and railroad collapse give the U.S. episode its distinctive identity. It predates the better-known Panic of 1893 and Panic of 1907.