<P> Panic of 1873 created one of the worst and longest depressions in American history, seriously affecting every aspect of the economy and bringing the railroad expansion to a halt . The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days . Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 went bankrupt, a total of 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875, unemployment reached 14% by 1876, during a time which became known in Britain as the Long Depression . Politically, the Democrats took control of Congress in 1874, the election of 1876 was deadlocked . </P> <P> The end of the Gilded Age coincided with the Panic of 1893, a deep depression that lasted until 1897 . Wheat and cotton farmers in the West and South were especially hard hit, and moved toward radicalism . President Grover Cleveland was forced to ask the Wall Street bankers help keep the Treasury liquid . Agrarian spokesmen William Jennings Bryan called for an inflationary policy of using cheap silver to effectively replace expensive gold . Bryan lost in a major political realignment in favor of the conservative pro-gold Republicans in the election of 1896 . </P> <P> Europe had a substantial amount of water supply and sewer infrastructure installed by the mid 1870s . In 1880 only 0.3% of urban households had filtered water, with this figure rising to 1.5% in 1890 and 6.3% in 1900 . </P> <P> The American labor movement began with the first significant labor union, the Knights of Labor in 1869 . The Knights collapsed in the 1880s and were displaced by strong international unions that banded together as the American Federation of Labor under Samuel Gompers . Rejecting socialism, the AFL unions negotiated with owners for higher wages and better working conditions . Union growth was slow until 1900, then grew to a peak during World War I . </P>

How did american expeditions contribute to the growth of trade