May 17: The Buttonwood Agreement

Five Jews were among the 24 stockbrokers and merchants who signed the Buttonwood Agreement on this date in 1792 under a large Buttonwood (Sycamore) tree at 68 Wall Street. The agreement established what would become the New York Stock Exchange (which was formally chartered in 1817). Under the terms of the Buttonwood Agreement, members agreed to deal only with one another and established a commission rate of one quarter of one percent. The five Jews were Benjamin Seixas, Ephraim Hart, Bernard Hart, Isaac M. Gomez, and Alexander Zuntz, a Hessian soldier who had worked for the British during the American Revolution.

“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 least than one quarter of one percent Commission on the Specie value 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.” —The Buttonwood Agreement