In March 1837, two ink-stained pages of processed cotton rags spread panic when they informed New Yorkers of the failure of several of the largest cotton factors in New Orleans. This article traces the pathways of these pieces of paper, the people who chose to send them, and the confidence-diminishing words they contained. The story of the spread of panic in the United States of America in 1837 provides a case study of how the cultural forces of confidence and communication contribute to financial crises. The article argues that attention to historical nuance reveals that economic events rely on personal, local, national, and international contexts that cannot be explained by quantitative research or theoretical models. In short, the essay advocates for a historical approach to the study of the economy and documents the power of two understudied concepts in economic history: context and culture.
