Which 1792 financial panic led to the creation of the New York Stock Exchange?

The Panic of 1792 led to the creation of the New York Stock Exchange. The panic struck the young United States in March and April 1792 after rapid speculation in government securities and bank shares.

Alexander Hamilton, the U.S. Treasury secretary, helped calm the crisis by supporting government securities and arranging measures that restored confidence. The episode exposed the instability of loosely regulated securities trading.

On May 17, 1792, 24 stockbrokers and merchants signed the Buttonwood Agreement under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street. They agreed to trade with one another under specified rules and commissions.

The agreement created the foundation of what became the New York Stock and Exchange Board, later known as the New York Stock Exchange. The panic itself was earlier than the exchange’s formal organization and should not be confused with later nineteenth-century panics.