During the confederation period, what problems did the American economy face?

The American economy at this time was very fragile, and in
its infancy.  Barter economies still existed on the frontier, there was no system of
national revenue, as the federal government had no authority to tax, our trade ships
were subject to seizure at the hands of the British Royal Navy and the entire economy
was under the weight and shadow of a $4 million debt owed to France, Spain and the
Netherlands, and the individual states themselves also had debts they could not
pay.

What's more, under the Articles of Confederation,
states were more or less in competition with each other to keep their revenue and
resources within their own states.  The more disunited and competitive the states
became, the less functional our economy was.