<P> The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s . Profits , prices , and wages went down while unemployment went up . Pessimism abounded during the time . The panic had both domestic and foreign origins . Speculative lending practices in western states , a sharp decline in cotton prices , a collapsing land bubble , international specie flows , and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain were all to blame . On May 10 , 1837 , banks in New York City suspended specie payments , meaning that they would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value . Despite a brief recovery in 1838 , the recession persisted for approximately seven years . Banks collapsed , businesses failed , prices declined , and thousands of workers lost their jobs . Unemployment may have been as high as 25 % in some locales . The years 1837 to 1844 were , generally speaking , years of deflation in wages and prices . </P>
<P> The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s . Profits , prices , and wages went down while unemployment went up . Pessimism abounded during the time . The panic had both domestic and foreign origins . Speculative lending practices in western states , a sharp decline in cotton prices , a collapsing land bubble , international specie flows , and restrictive lending policies in Great Britain were all to blame . On May 10 , 1837 , banks in New York City suspended specie payments , meaning that they would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value . Despite a brief recovery in 1838 , the recession persisted for approximately seven years . Banks collapsed , businesses failed , prices declined , and thousands of workers lost their jobs . Unemployment may have been as high as 25 % in some locales . The years 1837 to 1844 were , generally speaking , years of deflation in wages and prices . </P>
when did financial panic begins and leads to an economic depression
when did financial panic begins and leads to an economic depression
May 10 , 1837
May 10 , 1837