Interstate trade made the structural problem visible. A state could tax goods arriving from a neighbor, favor its own ports or merchants, or adopt rules that shifted costs outward. Another state could retaliate. Congress possessed no general power under the Articles to regulate commerce among the states and create one controlling national rule. Its treaty authority did not cure that problem: Article IX protected important state authority over imposts and trade restrictions even when Congress negotiated commercial arrangements. The result was not a complete halt to commerce, but a patchwork in which local advantage could defeat a broader national policy.

Money requires similar precision. Congress could borrow, issue bills of credit, and regulate the value of coin struck under national or state authority. States also issued paper money and pursued different tender and debt policies. The problem should not be reduced to the claim that "every state printed its own currency" or that Congress possessed no monetary authority. The deeper weakness was fragmentation. National borrowing did not create the tax revenue needed for repayment, and congressional monetary powers did not give Congress control over the full range of state fiscal choices affecting contracts and exchange. Uncertainty about payment and policy weakened confidence and intensified political conflict between debtors and creditors.

Economic weakness produced pressure for coordination before the Philadelphia Convention. Virginia and Maryland negotiated navigation and trade questions at Mount Vernon in 1785, demonstrating that states could cooperate but also highlighting the need for wider participation. The Annapolis Convention of 1786 was called to consider commercial problems, yet only five states sent commissioners. Its delegates recommended a broader meeting. The exam lesson is causal: trade barriers point to the missing commerce power; unpaid national obligations point to the revenue system; currency and debt disputes show fragmented state policy; and the Annapolis meeting shows how those recurring problems helped move reform from complaint toward convention.

Video lesson: The ARTICLES of CONFEDERATION, Explained [AP Government Foundational Documents]