sts decided to come up with ways to strike the heart of the Stamp Act taxations. These would include many agreements of merchants and people related to commerce in North America. The merchants of New York signed a Non-Importation agreement on October 31, 1765. The New York Mercury, a newspaper, published the agreement made by the merchants on November 7, 1765. The merchants came to the conclusion that the economy had become “melancholy” (King, Peter. Non-importation Agreement of New York). It also had been “…greatly restricted by the impositions on duties established by the late acts of trade” (King, Peter. Non-importation Agreement of New York). It is evident that the merchants saw the act as putting the economy into a tailspin that would eventually be felt throughout the American Colonies. The reason this was possible was because the merchants decided that they had the right to boycott items being shipped to America by Britain. The merchants “…unanimously agreed that no merchant will vend any goods or merchandise sent upon commission from Great Britain that shall be shipped from thence the first day of January next unless upon the condition mentioned in the first resolution” (King, Peter. Non-importation Agreement of New York). The condition in the first resolution stated, “…all such merchants are owners of and have vessels already gone and now cleared out for Great Britain” (King, Peter. Non-importation Agreement of New York). This means that the merchants would not accept any goods that had already been shipped. Connecticut passed resolutions on the Stamp Act in December of 1765 according to the Massachusetts Gazette. The main resolution was that they felt “that the Stamp Act in special, is a tax imposed on the colonies without their consent” (King, Peter. Connecticut). The American people were becoming extremely angry. In towns from Boston to...
