What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“THE Committee of Inspection for the Town of PLYMOUTH, hereby give Notice.”

Once the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774, a new sort of advertisement began appearing in the Essex Gazette and other newspapers.  Rather than advertising and selling their own merchandise, importers surrendered those roles to local Committees of Inspection, “agreeable to the Tenth Article of the Association of the American Continental Congress.”  The First Continental Congress had devised the nonimportation agreement during its meetings in Philadelphia in September and October 1774 and then disseminated it throughout the colonies.

The tenth article of the Continental Association made provisions for goods imported between December 1, 1774, and February 1, 1775.  The importers could choose to return the merchandise or turn it over to the local Committee of Inspection.  If they chose the latter, they could opt for the committee to store the wares until the nonimportation agreement ended or sell them on behalf of the importer, in which case the importer recovered the cost of the items, but profits were designated for relief of Boston since it faced so much hardship once the Boston Port Bill closed and blockaded the harbor.  The tenth article also specified that “a particular Account of all goods so returned, stored, or sold, [was] to be inserted in the publick Papers.”

Such was the case in two advertisements that John Torrey, chairman of the Committee of Inspection in Plymouth, first placed in the Essex Gazette on December 20, 1774, and again in subsequent issues.  Those advertisements indicated which vessels transported the goods, but did not name the importers.  They gave straightforward lists of the merchandise offered for sale without incorporating any of the common appeals to price, quality, fashion, or consumer choice.  No marketing strategy nor turn of phrase (such as “very cheap” or “large Assortment”) sought to distinguish the merchandise in these advertisements from other goods available for sale.  With political principles as the primary focus, John Torrey and the Committee of Inspection had little motivation to craft the sort of lively advertisements that the importers might have placed on their own behalf under other circumstances.