Buttonwood Agreement


The Buttonwood Agreement is the founding document of what is now New York Stock Exchange and is one of the most important financial documents in U.S. history. The agreement organized securities trading in New York City and was signed on May 17, 1792 between 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street. According to legend the signing took place under a platanus occidentalis, a buttonwood tree, but this tree may never have existed. The New York Stock Exchange celebrates the signing of this agreement on May 17, 1792 as its founding.

History

Later in 1793, they conducted their business inside the Tontine Coffee House.
The Economist, a newsweekly based in London, named its financial markets column after the agreement.
The document is now part of the archival collection of the New York Stock Exchange.

Document agreement

In brief, the agreement had two provisions: 1) the brokers were to deal only with each other, thereby eliminating the auctioneers, and 2) the commissions were to be 0.25%. It reads as follows:

Signers

The twenty-four brokers, known as Founding and Subsequent Fathers, who signed the Buttonwood Agreement were :