The Economic Depression of 1873 was also known as The Panic of 1873 and it consisted, basically on a financial crisis that triggered a depression in Europe and North America that started in 1873 and did not finish until 1879, and even longer in some countries, including France and Britain.
In Britain, for example, it was known as the "Long Depression" that weakened the country's economic leadership.
As a matter of fact, it had several causes, of which economic historians debate the relative importance.
The first symptoms of the crisis were financial failures in Vienna, which spread to most of Europe and North America by 1873.