A technique of economic resistance used by the American patriots between 1765 and 1776 to oppose Britain’s attempts to tax and control the colonies.
The end of the French and Indian War (1756-1763) left the British state deeply in debt, thus initiating a reexamina-tion by England of the North American colonies’ position in the British Empire. This state of affairs allowed George Grenville—Britain’s minister of the Exchequer, who had assumed control because of the ill health of the prime minister—to push his Stamp Act through Parliament in 1765. The act was designed to raise revenue by taxing all printed materials in North America. The colonists quickly responded with ideological arguments examining the relationship between taxation and representation, but one of their most effective techniques involved the economic policy of nonimportation. As the North American colonies grew and developed in the eighteenth century, the American colonist came to consume increasing amounts of commodities manufactured in Britain or reexported (transshipped) from Britain. British merchants made credit easily available to these colonial consumers, facilitating their consumption. By 1765, many colonists found themselves deeply indebted to these British merchants. Thus, nonimportation was not only an act of colonial defiance but also a decision of economic policy. In these agreements, groups of citizens declared their mutual boycott of British goods until Parliament repealed the offending act. The colonists then stated their unwillingness to pay their debts until Parliament repealed the act. Nonimportation played an important role in the repeal of the Stamp Act, as the Marquis of Rockingham capitalized on the distress of British merchants brought about by colonial boycotts to convince Parliament to revoke the act. Nonimportation quickly became a favorite mechanism used by the American patriots against Britain’s increasing tyranny. By the early 1770s, nonimportation came to serve as a motivation for developing domestic manufacturing. Many colonists demonstrated their patriotism by wearing homespun clothing and drinking herbal tea, and activities such as these laid the foundations for the development of North American manufacturing.
