An agreement that was signed, in 1792, by 25 New York stockbrokers and merchants to establish an investment community that was later (in 1817) institutionalized as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The agreement was named after the buttonwood tree under which it was signed (it is now 68 Wall Street). It would become the leading stock exchange and financial power in the United States, and then, in the twentieth century and beyond, the world’s leading stock exchange. This agreement, in effect, formed a guild of stockbrokers who did business in the coffee houses located in lower Manhattan and is regarded as the precursor to the NYSE.