The correct answer here is that they enacted policies that would benefit the merchants.
In mercantilism, the point was to take all the raw materials from the colonies for the mainland, for example the Great Britain. Those materials would be used to create goods which would then be sent and sold back to the colonies. That task fell to merchants who used the deals with the government to set their shop in the colonies and sell their goods. In return they paid for the army.
Explanation:
they they fought the British in the opium wars they were vastly under-developed and after they lost a lost Hong Kong
The Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses.<span> Three notable weaknesses include the national government's lack of power to tax, the absence of national army or navy and the ability of each state to issue their own paper money.</span>