24 stockbrokers signed a two-sentence deal that became the NYSE

In 1792, 24 New York brokers who met beneath a buttonwood tree on Wall Street agreed to trade securities only with each other and to charge a fixed 0.25% commission, undercutting no one. That short pact, more cartel handshake than constitution, became the founding document of the New York Stock Exchange.

— Wikipedia contributors, Buttonwood Agreement — Signed 17 May 1792, Wall Street, New York