Furthermore, article 9 of the Articles of Confederation explicitly stated that “no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners, as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities whatsoever.” Thus, the government lacked any capacity to respond to British commercial regulations. There could be no national trade policy because there were thirteen state trade policies.
