In March 1792, security brokers who had been buying and selling securities under the shade of an old buttonwood tree met secretly in Corre’s Hotel. On May 17, 1792, they drew up and approved in bold script the first document which formalized their business transaction in the history of what later to be the New York Stock Exchange. 24 men signed the agreement to create New York Stock Exchange.
The first rule was that they would trade only with each other. The second rule simply stated that they would hold commission to ‘one quarter of one percent.’
For many years, the stock exchange did not have a formal home of its own. It met in Tontine’s Coffee House, a popular hangout near Pearl Street, and later moved into the Merchant Exchange building at 55 Wall Street.
At that time most of shares traded were in canal, turnpike, mining and gaslight companies. The industrial revolution brought on tremendous change in the stock market. People bought and sold shares of companies in new, record numbers, and Wall Street grew in its influence on the nation’s economy.
A more formal organization was established a quarter century later when, in 1817, twenty-eight brokers representing seven forms adopted a new constitution that may have been modeled on that of the Philadelphia exchange.
The New York Stock Exchange that most people would recognized today opened for business in 1825 at 11 Wall Street, New York City.
History of New York Stock Exchange
