tock auctions. "The institution we know today as the New York Sock Exchange began in 1792 as an effort to circumvent government regulation" (Blume 21). "Twenty-four...stock brokers, with no building or even a formal title, met under a buttonwood tree on the north side of Wall Street..." (Blume 23) there they made a deal that went on to be known as the Buttonwood Agreement. In it were these words: "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
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