Panic Of 1873 Essay

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The Civil War was between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, which was over a disagreement on the institution of slavery. After the Civil War, the United States banking system grew rapidly and seemed to be set on solid ground. Later, the country was hit by many banking crises. Which one of them was the panic of 1873. This Panic started with a problem in Europe when the stock market crashed. Which scared off investors and began to sell off their investments that they had in American projects which were particularly railroads. The panic of 1873 happened so fast and so sudden on the other side of the world, and it arrived at the United States in a blink of an eye. The stock market came crashing down as fast as …show more content…

The economy plummeted because of over-loaning. Which is a simple way of saying that the bank gave out many loans and didn’t control it until it was too late. This collapse of the economy was disastrous for the nation’s economy. The panic led to unemployment, failed businesses, rail delays, and bank trouble. President Ulysses Grant was partially blamed for the panic of 1873 since the panic first started in Europe and spread to the United States of America. Ulysses Grant was president from 1869-1877 and during his presidency is when the panic of 1873 started. Due to President Ulysses Grant little knowledge about finance, he ended up making the panic worse than it was at first. Grant conceded that he knew little about finance, and he traveled to New York to consult leading businessmen and bankers for advice on how to address the panic, which became known as the Panic of 1873. Based on the advice he received, Grant believed that the panic was merely an economic fluctuation that affected only bankers and brokers. He instructed his Treasury Secretary William Adams Richardson to buy $10 million in government bonds. The result of this was to inject cash into the economy. These purchases curbed the panic on Wall Street, but the nation entered a five-year industrial depression. In the process, eighty-nine of the nation's 364 railroads went bankrupt. He was the one that was supposed to be able to control it, but it took …show more content…

Many people may think it is the “Great Depression” from the year 1930, but keep in mind that 1873 came first than 1930 therefore 1873 was the first great depression back then. As stated in the following backs up the theory being mentioned earlier about the first “Great Depression.” The world economy suffered prolonged downturns in the 1870s and 1890s. Indeed, before the 1930s, the years from 1873 to 1897 were known throughout the world as the Great Depression. The belief that America was the promised land. Under the spell of the promise, workers embarked in speculation, and by 1873 many of them had probably climbed the first few rungs of the ladder of success. But the panic threw them back to their former status, disenchanted and ruined. Everything after the war which was around the year 1865 was alright since it was after the Civil War, but slowly the prices of the things around them started to slowly decrease until it reached 1873 when they decreased drastically due to the panic caused. While enjoying the prosperity they had after the wat it came to an abrupt halt at the end of the summer of 1873, as the banking community discovered that it had reached a saturation point in the flotation of new securities and that the railroad system was overbuilt. The downfall was soon to happen after the Jay Cooke & Company had its failure as a bank. After that event happen