The falloff in North American orders was keenly felt in Britain, which was also experiencing an economic downturn, and British merchants flooded Parliament with petitions describing the hardship and loss of employment arising from the cancellation of American orders for their goods.19 Even if the economic impact of non-importation was modest compared to the recession, the political impact was large enough that the protesters achieved their objective: pressure from British manufacturers was an important factor in Parliament’s decision to repeal the Stamp Act. Recognizing that the Stamp Act and
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