The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act—famous as the first serious attempt to impose direct taxation on the American colonies—in February 1765. The tax on newspapers and other commercial documents, which were to be printed on special paper imported from England and bearing an official mark, was immediately met with outcries by colonists throughout the empire. That year colonists met in numerous assemblies both public and private to determine ways to persuade Parliament to repeal the Act. By the summer of 1765 the assemblies, led by businessmen in New York, had settled on several measures designed to strike Parliament where it could be hurt the most: in the pocketbook.