https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/history-of-the-stock-market/#:~:text=Exchange%20(NYSE).-,Although%20the%20first%20stock%20market%20began%20in%20Amsterdam%20in%201611,was%20America's%20first%20stock%20exchange.
SEC was created in 1934..so would have been much fewer rules than before that.
As typical with government, a new agency was created after a "problem" and it grows out of control since.