Events

Panic of 1907

Also Known As Knickerbocker Crisis

Citation Formats

General Reference

Economics Atlas. "Panic of 1907." Accessed August 29, 2026. https://dev-economics.interactiveatlas.org/events/panic-of-1907.

APA Style

Economics Atlas. (n.d.). Panic of 1907. Retrieved August 29, 2026, from https://dev-economics.interactiveatlas.org/events/panic-of-1907

BibTeX

@misc{economicsatlas-panic-of-1907,
  author = {Economics Atlas},
  title = {Panic of 1907},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-economics.interactiveatlas.org/events/panic-of-1907},
  note = {Accessed August 29, 2026}
}

A United States banking panic that began with a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York City the week of October 21, 1907, after speculators failed in an attempt to corner the market in United Copper stock. With no central bank to act as lender of last resort, financier J. P. Morgan personally organized a syndicate of bankers to supply emergency liquidity and contain the panic. The episode exposed the fragility of a banking system with no elastic currency or reserve backstop and directly motivated the National Monetary Commission, whose work led to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Facts

Event Year

1907 1

Event Date

1907-10-22 2

Location

New York City, United States 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Founding of the Federal Reserve System

The 1907 panic directly motivated the National Monetary Commission whose work produced the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Source The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed

Held Differently

Austrian School

Why this is disputed. Free-banking and Austrian-leaning historians (e.g. the private clearinghouse-association literature) argue New York clearinghouses were already resolving panics like 1907 without a central bank, making the case for the Federal Reserve weaker than the standard narrative holds.

Source The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed

Sources

1. The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed

Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Liberty Street Economics), 2016essay textView the Source

1. The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed

Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Liberty Street Economics), 2016Liberty Street Economics, The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed

Quote, Liberty Street Economics, The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed