On May 17, 1792, an agreement between 24 stockbrokers was made under a buttonwood tree.
The founding document of the New York Stock Exchange reads as follows:
"We the Subscribers, Brokers for the Purchase and Sale of the Public Stock, do hereby solemnly promise and pledge ourselves to each other, that we will not buy or sell from this day for any person whatsoever, any kind of Public Stock, at a less rate than one quarter percent Commission on the Specie value of and that we will give preference to each other in our Negotiations.
In Testimony whereof we have set our hands this 17th day of May at New York, 1792."
Today, the document is in the Museum of American Finance down the street at 48 Wall Street (view here).
