King George III signed on March 30, 1775. the "New England Restraining Act." The new law, effective on July 1, 1775, forbade, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island from trading with any nation other than Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies.
The act was later expanded to ban New Englanders from the North Atlantic fisheries and added Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina to the trading restrictions. The act accelerated the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.
