Long Depression

The Long Depression was a worldwide economic downturn that began with the Panic of 1873 and, by most measures, lasted until 1879, though some price indices point to depressed conditions persisting as late as 1899. It struck hardest in the United Kingdom, the United States, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, following the collapse of speculative railroad investment and the banking house of Jay Cooke and Company, compounded by the Coinage Act of 1873's contraction of the money supply through the effective end of bimetallism in the United States. In America alone roughly 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1879 and nominal wages fell by about a quarter, while collapsing grain prices drove mass emigration from Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary and Russia. The depression fed rising protectionism, labor unrest including the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, and is frequently cited by historians as a spur to the New Imperialism and colonial expansion of the later nineteenth century. It is distinct from the twentieth century's Great Depression, named Long for its unusually extended duration rather than its depth.