Add to ORKGl’Union Générale, was the worst crisis to hit the Paris Bourse in the late nineteenth century. Using archival materials and new data on the finances of the bourse, this paper examines how the crisis was amplified by the microstructure of the bourse, the second most important exchange in Europe. Fourteen of the sixty agents de change (stock brokers) appeared to be in imminent danger of failure. The closure of the bourse was only averted by an emergency loan from the Banque de France, mediated by a syndicate of bankers, which ensured there was sufficient liquidity on the end of January settlement days. This crash highlighted the weakness of the bourse’s microstructure, in particular, its difficulty in managing counterparty risk. The exchange ...