Gentlemen, it is evident that the Articles Of Confederation’s current policy for regulating domestic and international trade is utterly ineffectual. What message are we sending to Britain and the rest of Europe, by having fought for and gained our independence, only to not even know how to handle neither domestic nor international trade? This is an utterly shameful position to be in. The Articles of Confederation may have been founded on good intentions, but it seems more likely now that a lack of control and infrastructure, rather than an excess of it, shall be our downfall.
The national government had no authority to regulate trade among the states, and as a result the individual states have continued to abide by their own trade laws, making