RISE OF THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE 63 
in the ordinary produce and merchandise auctions at the foot 
of Wall Street—then the chief wholesale markets of the city. 
But auctions by their very nature are one-sided markets, with 
competition between buyers, but none between sellers. For 
this reason, auctioning did not prove an adequate method for 
marketing securities, despite the fact that security auctions are 
still held in New York. Also, due to public unfamiliarity with 
securities, about ten auctioneers and merchants were attracted 
into the new occupation of acting as agents and brokers for 
security buyers and sellers. These earliest New York stock- 
brokers, according to tradition, formed the custom of meeting 
under an old buttonwood tree which then stood before what is 
now 68 Wall Street, except when inclement weather drove this 
tiny curb-market to shelter in the nearby coffee houses. Thus 
they became accustomed to transact their business with each 
other and for the public, and to provide as well as they could 
the ready security market for which the times called with 
increasing insistence. And thus, for all its present splendid 
facilities, the New York securities market began very humbly 
indeed in the rain and dust of a village street. 
First Brokers’ Agreement.—The first sign of an organi- 
zation in this original open-air market was manifested on May 
17, 1792, when the following agreement, still preserved in the 
archives of the Stock Exchange, was signed by these early 
brokers : 
We, the Subscribers, Brokers for the Purchase and Sale of 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 per cent com- 
mission on the special value, and that we will give preference to each 
other in our negotiations. 
There are 24 signatures to this interesting document, which 
is the first stock exchange agreement of any kind in this 
country.