In response to the non-import Boston agreement, Parliament finally struck down the Townshend Revenue Act taxes on all products except tea. The non-import agreements of the years leading up to the American Revolution were an effective tactic to protest British policy and put the Boston Patriots first and demonstrate to other colonies the potential for joint action. Following the successful boycott that Boston launched in 1768 with the Boston non-Import Agreement, the First Continental Congress of 1774 would pass a colonial ban on all trade with Great Britain. Other U.S. cities have implemented similar non-import agreements to oppose the unpopular British policy. The use of raw materials, goods produced in the colonies and Yankee ingenuity were commonplace. Meanwhile, the American colonies experimented with the idea of being self-sufficient and not relying on the metropolis. This experience would be invaluable, because in a few years during the revolution, the British Royal Navy would blockade the American coast and close many major port cities. In the non-import agreement in Boston, traders and traders agreed to boycott goods under the Townshend Revenue Act until taxes on those goods were lifted.
Some critical products have been excluded from the boycott, such as salt, hemp and duck cloths. Smuggling was widespread. This was a direct violation of the Navigation Act. Almost all American communities have benefited or participated in the smuggling of illicit goods purchased by Dutch, French and Spanish traders. Smuggling was not only a cheaper alternative to taxed British products, but it also served as an effective means of resisting and undermining British politics. Boston was overwhelmed by smuggling and smugglers. The Sons of Liberty financed their organization through lucrative smuggling operations. Smuggling financed much of their opposition to British authority. Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere were all known as notorious patriotic Boston traffickers. The impact of the Boston non-import agreement and all similar agreements has been considerable. About 60 merchants and merchants signed the agreement on August 1, 1768, and within two weeks, all but sixteen Boston merchants, merchants and business owners had joined the boycott.
Boston craftsmen, craftsmen and other merchants signed the agreement with joy in the hope that the boycott would generate business for them. In the space of weeks and months, almost all ports and regions of the Thirteen Colonies adopted similar boycotts to protest and undermine the Townshend Revenue Act, although many merchants and traders in the South with loyalist tendencies refused to cooperate. Smuggling was widespread in the colonies. The effects of British merchants who acted with the American colonies were alarming. Traders lost money that shipped their goods to the colonies, where they would not be received. Most of the time, the goods were never left ashore. If they were, they would rot on the docks or in warehouses, or were looted by the settlers. The situation was a nightmare for customs officers who could not collect taxes on goods that were not left ashore or were never sold. As early as 1766, the practice of non-import agreements against the importation and trade with Great Britain of the cities of the American colonies was adopted. The sons of freedom were proponents of the application of non-import agreements and other similar boycott tactics.
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