This series of taxes were meant to increase English revenues from the colonists, and in turn pay the salaries of those men enforcing the Act. It placed taxes on lead, glass, paper, paint, and tea. In response, the colonists boycotted English goods, and the sale of English products fell almost fifty percent.
The Townshend Act was a series of laws passed by the British government on the American colonists in 1767, which placed new taxes on imports of lead, glass, paper, paint, and tea.