Editing Long Depression (section)

==Reactions to the crisis==

===Protectionism===

The period preceding the Long Depression had been one of increasing economic internationalism, championed by efforts such as the [[Latin Monetary Union]], many of which then were derailed or stunted by the impacts of economic uncertainty.<ref name="france-1">{{cite book|title=France and the Economic development of Europe (1800–1914)|isbn=0-415-19011-8|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|pages=38–39|author8=Rondo E. Cameron, Mark Casson}}</ref> The extraordinary collapse of farm prices<ref name="hobsbawm-2"/> provoked a protectionist response in many nations. Rejecting the free trade policies of the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], [[French president]] [[Adolphe Thiers]] led the new [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] to protectionism, which led ultimately to the stringent [[Méline tariff]] in 1892.<ref name="france-2">{{cite book|title=France and the Economic development of Europe (1800–1914)|isbn=0-415-19011-8|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|page=39|author8=Rondo E. Cameron, Mark Casson}}</ref> Germany's agrarian [[Junker]] aristocracy, under attack by cheap, imported grain, successfully agitated for a [[German tariff of 1879|protective tariff in 1879]] in [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s [[German Empire|Germany]] over the protests of his [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National Liberal Party]] allies.<ref name="france-2"/> In 1887, Italy and France embarked on a bitter [[tariff war]].<ref name="france-3">{{cite book|title=France and the Economic development of Europe (1800–1914)|isbn=0-415-19011-8|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|page=40|author8=Rondo E. Cameron, Mark Casson}}</ref> In the United States, [[Benjamin Harrison]] won the [[1888 United States presidential election|1888 US presidential election]] on a protectionist pledge.<ref name="readers">{{cite book|title=The Reader's companion to American history|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=1991|isbn=0-395-51372-3|author8=Eric Foner, John Arthur Garraty, Society of American Historians|url=https://archive.org/details/readerscompanion00fone}}</ref>

As a result of the protectionist policies enacted by the world's major trading nations, the global merchant marine fleet posted no significant growth from 1870 to 1890 before it nearly doubled in tonnage in the prewar economic boom that followed.<ref name="hobsbawm-4">{{cite book|title=The Age of Empire (1875–1914)|author=Eric Hobsbawm|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|year=1989|isbn=0-679-72175-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/ageofempire1875100hobs_0/page/50 50]|url=https://archive.org/details/ageofempire1875100hobs_0/page/50}}</ref> Only the United Kingdom and the Netherlands remained committed to low tariffs.<ref name="france-3"/>

===Monetary responses===

In 1874, a year after the 1873 crash, the [[United States Congress]] passed legislation called the [[Inflation]] Bill of 1874 designed to confront the issue of falling prices by injecting fresh [[United States Note|greenbacks]] into the money supply.<ref name="reconstruction">{{cite book|title=[[Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution - 1863-1877|Reconstruction: America's unfinished revolution, 1863–1877]]|author=Eric Foner|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2002|isbn=0-06-093716-5|page=522}}</ref> Under pressure from business interests, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Ulysses S. Grant]] [[veto]]ed the measure.<ref name="reconstruction"/> In 1878, Congress overrode President [[Rutherford B. Hayes]]'s veto to pass the [[Bland–Allison Act|Silver Purchase Act]], a similar but more successful attempt to promote "easy money".<ref name="cycles"/>

===Strikes===

The United States endured its first nationwide strike in 1877, the [[Great Railroad Strike of 1877]].<ref name="cycles"/> This led to widespread unrest and often violence in many major cities and industrial hubs including [[Baltimore railroad strike of 1877|Baltimore]], Philadelphia, [[Pittsburgh Railway Riots|Pittsburgh]], [[Reading Railroad massacre|Reading]], [[1877 Saint Louis general strike|Saint Louis]], [[Scranton General Strike|Scranton]], and [[1877 Shamokin uprising|Shamokin]].<ref name="mccabe">{{cite book|author1=McCabe, James Dabney |author2=Edward Winslow Martin|title=The History of the Great Riots: The Strikes and Riots on the Various Railroads of the United States and in the Mining Regions Together with a Full History of the Molly Maguires|publisher=National Publishing Company |url=https://archive.org/details/historygreatrio00mccagoog|year=1877}}</ref>

===New Imperialism===

{{main|New Imperialism}}

The Long Depression arguably contributed to the revival of [[colonialism]] leading to the [[New Imperialism]] period, symbolized by the [[scramble for Africa]], as the western powers sought new markets for their surplus accumulated capital.<ref name="hobsbawm-5">{{cite book|title=The Age of Empire (1875–1914)|author=Eric Hobsbawm|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|year=1989|isbn=0-679-72175-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/ageofempire1875100hobs_0/page/45 45]|url=https://archive.org/details/ageofempire1875100hobs_0/page/45}}</ref> According to [[Hannah Arendt]]'s ''[[The Origins of Totalitarianism]]'' (1951), the "unlimited expansion of power" followed the "unlimited expansion of [[capital (economics)|capital]]".<ref name="arendt">{{cite book|title=The Origins of Totalitarianism|author=Hannah Arendt|year=1973|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|page=[https://archive.org/details/originsoftotali100aren/page/137 137]|isbn=0-15-670153-7|title-link=The Origins of Totalitarianism|author-link=Hannah Arendt}}</ref>

In the United States, beginning in 1878, the rebuilding, extending, and refinancing of the western railways, commensurate with the wholesale giveaway of water, timber, fish, minerals in what had previously been Indian territory, characterized a rising market.  This led to the expansion of markets and industry, together with the [[robber baron (industrialist)|robber barons]] of railroad owners, which culminated in the genteel 1880s and 1890s. The [[Gilded Age]] was the outcome for the few rich. The cycle repeated itself with the [[Panic of 1893]], another huge market crash.