The financial crisis known as the Panic of 1873 began in the year 1873.
In the United States, the failure of the investment firm Jay Cooke & Company in September 1873 helped trigger a stock-market panic. The firm had heavily promoted bonds for the Northern Pacific Railway, and its collapse undermined confidence in railroad finance. The New York Stock Exchange closed temporarily for the first time in its history during the crisis.
The panic formed part of a wider international downturn often called the Long Depression. Germany and Austria had already experienced financial stress after speculative booms, and the shock spread through interconnected banking and investment markets. The depression lasted for many years, although historians debate its exact end date and whether it was as severe as the Great Depression. The 1873 panic is not the same as the Panic of 1893, which also centered heavily on railroads but began two decades later.