Panic of 1873

Examples of Panic of 1873 in the following topics:

• Panic and Redemption

  • The global Panic of 1873 reached the United States after overspeculation in the railroad industry and other losses weakened the economy.
  • The Panic of 1873 was a worldwide depression that started when the stock market in Vienna crashed in June 1873.
  • One of the main causes of the Panic of 1873 in the United States was overexpansion in the railroad industry after the Civil War.
  • This unstable economic growth came at the end of a series of economic setbacks: the Black Friday panic of 1869, the Chicago fire of 1871, the outbreak of equine influenza in 1872, and demonetization of silver in 1873.
  • Identify the economic factors that contributed to the Panic of 1873

• The Transformed National Economy

  • After the short-lived panic of 1873, the economy recovered with the advent of hard money policies and industrialization.
  • From 1869 to 1879, the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 6.8% for real GDP and 4.5% for real GDP per capita, despite the panic of 1873.
  • The Panic of 1873 had New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days.
  • The end of the Gilded Age coincided with the Panic of 1893, a deep depression that lasted until 1897 and marked a major political realignment in the election of 1896.
  • Annotations are major financial panics during the period (e.g., Panic of 1893, Panic of 1907).

• The Aftermath of the War

  • Some scholars, such as those of the Lost Cause tradition, argue that the Union held an insurmountable long-term advantage over the Confederacy in terms of industrial strength and population.
  • The abundance of European cotton and the United Kingdom's hostility to the institution of slavery, along with Lincoln's Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico naval blockades, severely decreased any chance that either the United Kingdom or France would enter the war.
  • The American Civil War was followed by a boom in railroad construction, which contributed to the Panic of 1873.
  • The full restoration of the Union was the work of a highly contentious postwar era known as Reconstruction.
  • Andersonville National Cemetery is one of many cemeteries holding Civil War dead.

• Freedom, Inequality, and Democracy in the Gilded Age

  • The development and fast acceptance of the sewing machine during this period changed the domestic lives of women.
  • The production of hand-sewn clothing and household linens chained all but the wealthiest of women to a life of toil, which can hardly be understood today.
  • The Harlem Renaissance and the popularity of jazz music during the early part of the 20th century made many Americans more aware of black culture and more accepting of black celebrities.
  • The "Gilded Age" that was enjoyed by the topmost percentiles of American society after the recovery from the Panic of 1873 floated on the surface of the newly industrialized economy of the Second Industrial Revolution.
  • The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 book, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, employing the ironic difference between a "gilded" and a Golden Age.

• Inadequate Currency

  • The economic Panic of 1893 intensified the debates, and when Democratic President Grover Cleveland continued to support the gold standard against the will of much of his party, activists became determined to take over the Democratic Party organization and nominate a silver-supporting candidate in 1896.
  • The Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the standard silver dollar.
  • However, during the economic chaos of the Panic of 1873, the price of silver dropped significantly, but the Mint would accept none for striking into legal tender.
  • To advocates of what became known as free silver, the 1873 act became known as the "Crime of '73".
  • Allison, did not reverse the 1873 provisions, but required the Treasury to purchase a minimum of $2 million of silver bullion per month.

• Conclusion: Trends of the Gilded Age

  • The term for this period came into use in the 1920s and 1930s and was derived from writer Mark Twain's 1873 work, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which satirized an era of serious social problems masked by a thin gold gilding.
  • Two major nationwide depressions—the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893—interrupted growth and caused social and political upheavals.
  • With the rapid growth of cities, political machines increasingly took control of urban politics.
  • Following Darwin's idea of natural selection, English philosopher Herbert Spencer proposed the idea of social Darwinism.
  • A book cover of The Gilded Age by Mark Twain (1st edition, 1873).

• The Gilded Age

  • This term was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, published in 1873.
  • The term refers to the gilding of a cheaper metal with a thin layer of gold.
  • Two extended nationwide economic depressions followed the Panic of 1873 and the Panic of 1893.
  • With the rapid growth of cities, political machines increasingly took control of urban politics.
  • The end of the Gilded Age coincided with the Panic of 1893, a deep depression, which lasted until 1897 and marked a major political realignment in the election of 1896.

• Panic

  • Panic is a sudden terror which dominates thinking and often affects groups of people.
  • Panics typically occur in disaster situations, such as during a fire, and may endanger the overall health of the affected group.
  • These panics are generally fuelled by media coverage of social issues (although semi-spontaneous moral panics do occur and some moral panics have historically been fueled by religious missions, governmental campaigns, and scientific mobilizing against minority groups that used media outlets to further their claims), and often include a large element of mass hysteria.
  • A moral panic is specifically framed in terms of morality, and usually expressed as outrage rather than unadulterated fear.
  • Though not always, very often moral panics revolve around issues of sex and sexuality.

• Panic Disorder and Panic Attacks

  • A panic attack is a sudden period of intense anxiety; if these attacks occur often, they may indicate a panic disorder.
  • People with panic disorder experience recurrent (more than one) and unexpected panic attacks, along with at least one month of persistent concern about additional panic attacks, worry over the consequences of the attacks, or self-defeating changes in behavior related to the attacks (such as withdrawing from social activities out of fear of having an attack) (APA, 2013).
  • People with panic disorder may become so afraid of having panic attacks that they experience what are known as anticipatory attacks—essentially panicking about potential panic attacks and entering a cycle of living in fear of fear.
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the psychotherapeutic treatment of choice for panic disorder; several studies show that 85 to 90 percent of panic-disorder patients treated with CBT recover completely from their panic attacks within 12 weeks.
  • Some of the physical manifestations of a panic attack can include dizziness, shortness of breath, sweating, trembling, feelings of faintness, chest pain, or a fear of losing control.

• Silverties Versus Goldbugs

  • Toward the end of the 1800s, bimetallism became a cause of political conflict in the United States.
  • After the war, the government passed the Fourth Coinage Act in 1873 and soon resumed payments without the free and unlimited coinage of silver.
  • The Panic of 1893 was a severe nationwide depression that brought the money issue to the forefront.
  • The Silverite coalition's famous slogan was "16 to 1" – that is, the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver equal in value to one ounce of gold, a ratio similar to that established in the Coinage Act of 1834.
  • Advocates predicted that if silver were used as the standard of money, they would be able to pay off all of their debt.