The panic caused a pronounced commercial downturn in American port cities that did not relent until after 1800. Investors in land schemes did not suffer alone. Shopkeepers, artisans, and wage laborers, all of whom depended on the continuance of overseas commerce, felt the impact as businesses failed between 1796 and 1799. The panic did not, however, evenly affect the whole economy. Port cities along the Eastern Seaboard suffered much worse than the rural interior, which had not yet developed the intricate webs of credit and market exchange that would drag it into future panics and depressions.