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Explains the central weakness of the Articles: the national government had too little power. The speaker introduces how this made the United States function more like thirteen separate states than one nation.
Speaker A
The Western issue was where the Articles had success.Everything else was a failure.Why was this the case?What was the big problem?The core problem of the Articles of Confederation was the lack of power of the national government.
That was the main and most significant problem.Remember the powers we discussed previously for the Confederation Congress?They were extremely limited.Aside from foreign policy concerning treaties and war, everything else was handled at the state level with zero coordination.This created a situation where the US was.
Where the US essentially functioned as a union of 13 separate nations instead of one unified country.For example, most people would say the United States are instead of the United States is are A R E is plural.So the statement emphasizes the states in the United States is is singular and emphasizes united, one nation supposedly indivisible under the Articles.And for the next few decades are and the states were the dominant attitude and interpretation.
The placement of power within the states instead of the national government created or exacerbated, made worse many problems and primarily why the Articles failed.When things went wrong or problems arose, the Confederation Congress could do nothing to help or stop the issue.Let's take a look at some examples of the big problem of the Articles.
Covers the major problems caused by weak national authority, including debt, taxation, trade conflicts, mercantilism, and unpaid soldier wages. These examples show how the Confederation Congress could not solve national economic crises.
Speaker A
First is debt.The first example of the core problem, remember core problem was that the national government had little power.The states had pretty much all of the power.The first example of that problem is debt and taxation.The states and national government both had massive debts, roughly $100 million in 1780s money.
The largest foreign creditor, the largest country the US owed money to, was France.All of those supplies they sent weren't free.And France was suffering from its own debt crisis.They also still owed debts to the British.Per the Treaty of Paris of 1783, they owed a large number of bonds or IOUs to pay back from the Revolutionary War.
All of these came with interest, a percent that you pay on top of the money you owe.And that continued to pile up.Taxes were collected by the states, so the national government had no way to raise money.Well, they had the Western states, but that was not a lot of money, or at least a lot of money quickly.The states did not share tax revenue with Congress and they weren't required to either.
This was alleviated some by the land sales from the land Ordinance of 1785, but only some.So that's the first example of debt and taxation.The government couldn't raise money and they had a lot of money to pay pay off.Second is trade regulation.Each state controlled and regulated its own trade, foreign and domestic.
So their trade between other countries and Their twade trade between other states.Foreign powers looking to trade had to deal basically with 13 different sets of trade laws.Naturally, the states were in competition with one another for trade deals.This created tension between powerful states and also between the powerful and the small or less powerful states.Some states created trade regulations at the expense of other states.
And this leads to trade wars that erupt.And Congress, national government, was powerless to do anything about it.The Confederation Congress had no power to intervene or regulate.
The third problem is mercantilism.Remember, this system was all about strict British control of colonial trade.
An independent US Was now open to trade with whomever they liked.The problem was that Europe still worked under mercantilism and thus restricted American trade within their own colonies and systems.This included France, who still had colonies to protect and make money from.The states had no strong developed economic base beyond the raw goods.Because of things like the Woolens Act.
See how it's all coming together here?The US had not had time to build their own industry or manufacturing.
So they were still mostly reliant on foreign trade for finished goods.The British decided to use this to their advantage, and they flooded US markets with their own goods, goods that were cheaper and better quality.So money was flowing out of the US and into foreign countries, particularly the British, because of their system of mercantilism.
A normal national government has tools to deal with this, but the Confederation Congress was powerless.This, along with the lack of trade regulation, led the US into a deep economic depression in the 1780s.
The last problem, or sorry, not problem problem, but example I'll discuss, is soldier pay.The soldiers of the Continental army were promised half pay for life by the Continental Congress.In other words, once the war was over, they weren't going to get their full soldier pay anymore, but they were still going to get their half of what they got every month for the rest of their life.So if they were getting $10 a month while the war was fighting, once the war was over, they were still supposed to get $5 a month for the rest of their life.And the Confederation Congress, as part of when they were setting up the government agreed and confirmed this agreement.
But the states had not, and they would do nothing to honor this.The veterans became very angry.And when soldiers get angry in a large enough group, that's how you get coups.That's how you get the overthrow of governments by the military.Confederation Congress had no authority to enforce this law, no mech, and no mechanism to raise the funds to meet this obligation.
So that's a Massive problem or example of the core problem.
Describes how state-controlled currency led to inflation, especially in Rhode Island. The speaker explains how forced acceptance of worthless money worsened the economy and alarmed creditors.
Speaker A
Now what we're going to look at are some particular events that show the issues of all of this.
The first is the Rhode island currency crisis.
The states needed currency to pay their debts and honor their trade agreements.Since states regulated their own currency, all of them printed their own money at a high rate.So there were 13 different, at least 13 different forms of currency in the United States, one for each state.At least one for each state.Rhode island outdid all others by not only printing money without restrictions, but by forcing people to use it.
Now one thing to understand, the more money you print, the lower its value.So more money so you, so you, so it takes more money to pay for something and so on.Because the lower the value, the more you need to use.Right?$5 does not have the same value.
If you lower still says $5, but that $5 doesn't go as far.When I'm recording this September of 2020 22, think about the inflation issues you had where buying groceries, like $10 worth of groceries doesn't buy you as much or $10 doesn't buy you as much groceries, many groceries as it did a year ago.That's what I'm talking about.Except in this case that the value of the money is being driven down.It's not so much that things are getting more expensive is that the value of the money is going down.
So it's a similar issue, but from the other direction, if that makes sense.Rhode island solution was just to print money constantly, which only made things far worse.A law was passed in Rhode island where it was $100 fine if you did not take money at face value.A second offense, if you violated that law a second time led to the loss of your rights as a citizen of Rhode island and the United States states.So if you didn't take the money at face value, if you tried to go by the actual value of the currency, not the printed value of the currency, as was the situation, you could lose your rights as a citizen.
This created massive inflation, which only also made the situation worse.Many banks refused to take the currency, even closed, due to these laws.Rich white land owners were shocked and asked for help from the Continental Congress.But nothing could be done.As we've discussed, this is one of the things that helped push the US economy into it, into that deep economic depression.
So that's one example of how these issues came together to create the examples and the core problem came together to create massive issues.
Details the causes and course of Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts, including debt, taxes, and debtor prisons. The chapter closes by explaining why the rebellion mattered for the failure of the Articles and the push toward a new constitution.
Speaker A
A second example is something called Shays Rebellion.
Shays rebellion happens in Massachusetts.The farmers in Massachusetts were in serious debt, but the state gave no aid to their farmers.In fact, the states would seize or take a farmer's property, both the land and other owned property, including like their farm animals.
The state would seize or take that property to pay their debts, which most other states had laws against.If you're a farmer and you don't have the tools to farm, are you gonna be able to pay your debts back?No.That's why other states had laws against this, but Massachusetts did not.If you couldn't pay your debts over a long enough time or you get sued because of it, you would be sent to what was called a debtor's prison.
In other words, you would be put in prison for a time based on a formula based on the amount of debt that you had.Then in 1786, state of Massachusetts raised their taxes on farmers.The farmers were understandably very mad.And discontent spreads.And the people raised rise up, and they rise up behind a, not only a farmer, but a veteran named Daniel Shades.
And yes, the S is part of his name.It's not S H A Y.It's S H A Y S. Daniel Shays.He was a veteran of the Continental army in the Revolutionary War, but also a farmer out in western Massachusetts.
Out here originally this was protest, but it escalated quickly, starting in August of 1786, escalated quickly into an armed revolt.And there were several skirmishes.But finally the state of Massachusetts totally put down this rebellion by June of 87.So August of 1786 to June of 1787, almost a full year.
What was the.And throughout all of this, Massachusetts is asking the Continental Congress for.It's not Continental.The Confederation Congress for help.And there's nothing they can do.
There are three significances to Shays rebellion.I'm only going to talk about one right now.
And we'll circle back and trust me, this will, this will make sense for me doing it this way.The first significance was that farmers lost the rebellion and gained nothing.Their situation did not improve.They still had to deal with all of those higher taxes and all of those laws like debtors prisons, and they could seize their property.This was a total loss for the farmers.
The outcome for them was negative.The other two significances were related to the creation of the new constitution.And we'll circle back to it.So leave space in your notes for two more significances.
But I need to talk about other things first.So Shays rebellion is a very important example of the fact that the confederation Congress could not help deal with things like internal disturbances.Right.That was one of the examples I gave you.They could do nothing to help Massachusetts deal with this.They also could do nothing to.To rein in Massachusetts laws regarding the farmers.So they couldn't help on either end.So it's significant because the farmers lost the rebellion and gained nothing.But it's also significant for the movement to fix the articles or eventually the new constitution.
And that is our next topic.