Let's go to the Thought Bubble. As previously noted, the English crown benefited tremendously from the import of consumer goods to the American colonies, and one of the most effective ways American colonists could protest taxation without representation was by boycotting British products. In order to enforce these boycotts, the protesters created committees of correspondence, which spread information about who was and was not observing the boycotts, and these committees also could coerce non-compliers into compliance, which is to say that they were creating and enforcing policy, kind of like a government does. The Maryland Committee of Correspondence, in fact, was instrumental in setting up the first Continental Congress, which convened to coordinate a response to the fighting that started in 1775. This was back when congresses did things, by the way. It was awesome. Anyway, the Continental Congress is most famous for drafting and approving the Declaration of Independence.