Colonial Merchants Organize Non-Importation Against the Townshend Acts

Merchants in the colonies, some of them smugglers, organized economic boycotts to put pressure on their British counterparts to work for repeal of the Townshend Acts. Boston merchants organized the first non-importation agreement, which called for merchants to suspend importation of certain British goods effective 1 January 1768. Merchants in other colonial ports, including New York City and Philadelphia, eventually joined the boycott, though the source supplies no dates for their adherence. The movement had measurable effect: British exports to the colonies declined by 38 percent in 1769, though many merchants did not participate. The supplied source does not document a New York pact signed on 27 August 1768 or its specific terms, so that claim is not admitted here.