The depression that occurred in the United States in 1893 was the worst in the nation's history. As the economy became more integrated and centralized, fewer businesses and workers operated outside the influence of national markets and were therefore more vulnerable to the effects of a national downturn. In April 1893 the U.S. Treasury's gold reserves fell below $100 million, setting off a financial panic as investors, fearing that the country would be forced to abandon the gold standard, scrambled to sell off assets and convert them to gold. This surge of selling rocked a market already unsettled by the spectacular failure of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in February; the collapse of the National Cordage Company on 4 May exacerbated the crisis. Banks everywhere began frantically calling in loans, and western and southern banks withdrew substantial deposits from New York banks. Bank failures spread rapidly; some...