1914: The First Truly Global Financial Crisis

When the British taxpayer bailed out the banks in the financial crisis of 2008-9, it was widely thought to be an unprecedented event. But much the same thing happened in the early stages of the First World War, when a financial panic bearing a remarkable resemblance to its modern counterpart swept global securities markets. Such was the scale of the crisis that many stock markets, including the then all-powerful London Stock Exchange, were forced to close and remained so for months.