The Buttonwood Agreement plants the seed of the New York Stock Exchange
On this day · 17 May 1792
Twenty-four brokers under a Wall Street tree signed two sentences that grew into the world's largest stock exchange.
On May 17, 1792, 24 New York stockbrokers met on Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement, a brisk two-sentence pact named for the buttonwood (American sycamore) tree where they liked to trade.
The rules were simple: deal only with one another, cutting out the auctioneers, and charge a minimum commission of 0.25% on every transaction. It was less a grand institution than a club for restoring trust after the financial panic of 1792, when reneged deals had spooked the young market.
Two sentences, twenty-four signatures, and the beginnings of Wall Street as we know it.
The arrangement formalized in 1817 as the New York Stock & Exchange Board, which adopted a constitution and membership rules. From that buttonwood handshake grew the New York Stock Exchange, now the largest exchange on Earth by the market value of its listed companies.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
