Long Depression

Not to be confused with long-term depression, a neurophysiological process in the brain.

The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1899, depending on the metrics used.[1] It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing strong economic growth fueled by the Second Industrial Revolution in the decade following the American Civil War. The episode was labeled the "Great Depression" at the time, and it held that designation until the Great Depression of the 1930s. Though it marked a period of general deflation and a general contraction, it did not have the severe economic retrogression of the later Great Depression.[2]

The United Kingdom was the hardest hit; during this period it lost some of its large industrial lead over the economies of continental Europe.[3] While it was occurring, the view was prominent that the British economy had been in continuous depression from 1873 to as late as 1896 and some texts refer to the period as the Great Depression of 1873–1896, with financial and manufacturing losses reinforced by a long recession in the agricultural sector.[4]

In the United States, historians refer to the Depression of 1873–1879, kicked off by the Panic of 1873, and followed by the Panic of 1893, book-ending an era of prosperity. The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research dates the contraction following the panic as lasting from October 1873 to March 1879. At 65 months, it is the longest-lasting contraction identified by the NBER, eclipsing the Great Depression's 43 months of contraction.[5][6] In the United States, from 1873 to 1879, 18,000 businesses went bankrupt, including 89 railroads.[7] Unemployment peaked in 1878 at 8.25%.[8]

  1. ^ The Long Depression – the First Great Depression (America's Economic History. Posted Jul 16, 2015 by Martin Armstrong)
  2. ^ Rosenberg, Hans (1943). "Political and Social Consequences of the Great Depression of 1873–1896 in Central Europe". The Economic History Review. 13. 13 (1/2). Blackwell Publishing: 58–73. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1943.tb01613.x. JSTOR 2590515.
  3. ^ Musson, A. E. (1959). "The Great Depression in Britain, 1873–1896: A Reappraisal". The Journal of Economic History. 19 (2). Cambridge University Press: 199–228. doi:10.1017/S0022050700109994. JSTOR 2114975. S2CID 154705117.
  4. ^ Capie, Forrest; Wood, Geoffrey (1997). "Great Depression of 1873–1896". In Glasner, David; Cooley, Thomas F. (eds.). Business cycles and depressions: an encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 148–149. ISBN 0-8240-0944-4.
  5. ^ "Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions". National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
  6. ^ Fels, Rendigs (1949). "The Long-Wave Depression, 1873–97". The Review of Economics and Statistics. 31 (1). The MIT Press: 69–73. doi:10.2307/1927196. JSTOR 1927196.
  7. ^ The Economic Performance Index (EPI), Vadim Khramov and John Ridings Lee
  8. ^ James R. Vernon, "Unemployment rates in postbellum America: 1869–1899." Journal of Macroeconomics 16.4 (1994): 701–714. online