Buttonwood Agreement

[2] The agreement organized securities trading in New York City and was signed on May 17, 1792 between 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street.

[2] In March 1792, twenty-four of New York's leading merchants met secretly at Corre's Hotel to discuss ways to bring order to the securities business.

In 1793, they coordinated their business inside the Tontine Coffee House on the corner of Wall and Water streets.

It 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 and that we will give preference to each other in our Negotiations.

[4]The twenty-four brokers, known as Founding and Subsequent Fathers, who signed the Buttonwood Agreement were (including business location):[6]

Depiction of traders under the buttonwood tree
A 1797 painting by Francis Guy . The building with the American flag is the Tontine Coffee House. Diagonally opposite (southeast corner, extreme right) [ 1 ] is the Merchant's Coffee House, where the brokers of the Buttonwood Agreement and others traded before the construction of the Tontine. On the right is Wall Street , leading down to the East River .