Marianna Lucich
Mr. Verde
SUPA US History
27 October 2014
The Articles of Confederation is an agreement between the thirteen original states; it provided a slacking federal government before the current Constitution went into effect.
The
Articles of Confederation was created to find a solution to common problem. It was the first official government of the United States, it had many weaknesses
. One of the main weaknesses was the failure to regulate trade (Class Notes). The states would be in charge of their incoming money. The thirteen states were in debt because of tariff wars that they got involved in with other states. This had put the states in great debt there for they couldn’t give the government the money.
Jefferson said: "It will be said there is no money in the treasury. There never will be money in the treasury till the Confederacy shows its teeth. The states must see the rod."
(Website)
The government couldn’t pay off the debts of the war just like Britain in the French and Indian war.
The American Revolution put them in debt because they kept sending out troops to contain the rebellions. They couldn’t tax the people for the reason that it would have made more rebellion and quarrels for the government which was already weak and the war had added on to it. Since they couldn’t tax the central government had to ask for donations from the states to provide and raise armed forces. Another weakness was that the government was lacking leadership. States had tried to limit the power of the national court system because
they didn’t want the government to become a monarchy just like Britain. They didn’t have any chief executive to make any logical or accurate decisions on laws. This relates back to Britain because they didn’t have a national court system either they had a king and queen to decide on laws. The people of Britain didn’t have a say in their government. An additional weakness was there was a lack of national currency. This had resolved in the states printing their own money.
This had made America’s economy very weak. Britain had to tax extra to help them get out of the debt they had put themselves in, In the French and Indian war. (Website)
The Lack of national currency no taxing upon the people and no national government was the leading contributor to the failure of the articles of confederation. Since there was a high demand for food during the Revolution farmers had to take out loans to up keep their land and produce food for the markets. Because of the failure of the Articles of confederation the farmers in Massachusetts were rebellion because of the debt they were in. some people couldn’t pay the taxes so farmers sold their land and not as much food is provided. The central government was weak and if you have a weak central government regulation of international was weak also. Since they couldn’t regulate the trade the economy was corrupted. Trade is the one of the main ways that a country makes their money. Without having a strong central government to enforce laws states will fall into calamity. Having a lack of a balanced nation will
